Non-Abelian Gauge Field Localization on Walls and Geometric Higgs Mechanism

Abstract

Combining the semi-classical localization mechanism for gauge fields with $N$ domain wall background in a simple $SU(N)$ gauge theory in five space-time dimensions we investigate the geometric Higgs mechanism, where a spontaneous breakdown of the gauge symmetry comes from splitting of domain walls. The mass spectra are investigated in detail for the phenomenologically interesting case $SU(5)\to SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ which is realized on a split configuration of coincident triplet and doublet of domain walls. We derive a low energy effective theory in a generic background using the moduli approximation, where all non-linear interactions between effective fields are captured up to two derivatives. We observe novel similarities between domain walls in our model and D-branes in superstring theories.

45 pages, 8 figures, several references added