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The effective potential and dimensional transmutation

By: D.R.T. Jones
From: Universidade de Liverpool
At: Complexo Interdisciplinar, Anfiteatro
[2007-12-05] 11:30

I review calculations of the effective potential, with particular emphasis on cases when the radiatively corrected potential exhibits the phenomenon that Coleman and Weinberg called dimensional transmutation. I illustrate this in a variety of simple models leading up to a realistic extension of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model in which an additional U(1) is broken at a high scale not explicitly present in the fundamental Lagrangian, in other words via dimensional transmutation. I emphasise throughout that, despite some recent claims to the contrary, it CAN be possible to infer reliably that the tree vacuum does not represent the true ground state of the theory.