How is spontaneous symmetry breaking possible? Understanding Wigner's theorem in light of unitary inequivalence

David John Baker, Hans Halvorson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

We pose and resolve a puzzle about spontaneous symmetry breaking in the quantum theory of infinite systems. For a symmetry to be spontaneously broken, it must not be implementable by a unitary operator in a ground state's GNS representation. But Wigner's theorem guarantees that any symmetry's action on states is given by a unitary operator. How can this unitary operator fail to implement the symmetry in the GNS representation? We show how it is possible for a unitary operator of this sort to connect the folia of unitarily inequivalent representations. This result undermines interpretations of quantum theory that hold unitary equivalence to be necessary for physical equivalence.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)464-469
Number of pages6
JournalStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Volume44
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2013

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • History
  • General Physics and Astronomy
  • History and Philosophy of Science

Keywords

  • Inequivalent representations
  • Quantum field theory
  • Spontaneous symmetry breaking
  • Wigner's theorem

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