φ⁴ Field Theory — Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking

Mexican hat potential, domain walls, Goldstone bosons, and the Higgs mechanism

Mexican Hat Potential V(φ)

1D Field Configuration & Domain Walls

Order Parameter & Phase Transition

Lagrangian & Physics

Lagrangian density:
ℒ = ½(∂φ)² − V(φ)
V(φ) = ½μ²φ² + ¼λφ⁴
Minima: φ₀ = ±√(−μ²/λ) if μ²<0
Goldstone boson: massless mode
tangent to vacuum manifold S¹
Domain wall: kink solution
φ(x) = φ₀·tanh(x/ξ), ξ=√(2/|μ²|)
Broken symmetry
VEV |φ₀|
Domain walls
Higgs mass