Stueckelberg and Higgs Mechanisms: Frames and Scales

Abstract: We consider Yang-Mills theory with a compact gauge group $G$ on Minkowski space ${\mathbb R}^{3,1}$ and compare the introduction of masses of gauge bosons using the Stueckelberg and Higgs mechanisms. The Stueckelberg field $\phi$ is identified with a $G$-frame on the gauge vector bundle $E$ and the kinetic term for $\phi$ leads to the mass of the gauge bosons. The Stueckelberg mechanism is extended to the Higgs mechanism by adding to the game a scalar field describing rescaling of metric on fibres of $E$. Thus, we associate Higgs fields as well as running coupling parameters with conformal geometry on fibres of gauge bundles. In particular, a running coupling tending to zero or to infinity is equivalent to an unbounded expansion of $G$-fibres or its contraction to a point. We also discuss scale connection, space-time dependent Higgs vacua and compactly supported gauge and quark fields as an attribute of confinement.