Dilaton Effective Action Overview

• Dilaton effective action is a framework describing the low-energy dynamics of a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson arising from spontaneously broken conformal symmetry.
• It employs a two-derivative formulation constrained by scale invariance, anomaly matching, and renormalization group flows to connect UV and IR physics.
• The action’s couplings to standard model fields and gravity yield testable predictions for collider experiments and cosmological applications.

A dilaton effective action encapsulates the low-energy dynamics and symmetry-breaking patterns associated with a scalar field (the dilaton) arising from the spontaneous breaking of scale invariance (or full conformal symmetry). In quantum field theories with approximate conformal invariance, especially those with strong dynamics or UV completions based on a conformal field theory (CFT), the dilaton often plays the role of a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. The effective action is tightly constrained by symmetry principles, anomaly matching, and renormalization group flows, and serves as a universal tool for connecting ultraviolet physics (anomalies, RG flows) to infrared phenomena (mass generation, low-energy couplings).

1. Ultraviolet Completion, Spontaneous and Explicit Breaking

The canonical construction begins with a strongly coupled CFT above a scale $\Lambda$ (the UV scale), which exhibits exact scale invariance. At a lower scale $\Lambda_{\rm SB} \sim f$, conformal symmetry is spontaneously broken, generating a dilaton field, denoted $\sigma(x)$, as a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. The explicit breaking is typically modeled by the inclusion of a single operator $O(x)$ of scaling dimension %%%%4%%%%, so $\epsilon$ parametrizes the departure from exact marginality. The running coupling $X_0=\lambda\Lambda^{\epsilon}$ satisfies $d\ln X_0/d\ln\mu = -\epsilon +O(X_0)$, implying that for $\epsilon\ll 1$ the dilaton can remain parametrically light compared to $\Lambda$ (Chacko et al., 2012).

2. Universal Structure of the Two-Derivative Effective Action

The effective action for the dilaton at low energies is fixed (up to higher-derivative and anomaly terms) by nonlinearly realized scale invariance. Introducing the conformal compensator $\chi(x) = f e^{\sigma(x)/f}$, which transforms linearly under scale transformations, the general two-derivative form is

$$\mathcal{L}_{\rm eff} = \tfrac12 (\partial_\mu\chi)(\partial^\mu\chi) - V(\chi),$$

where the potential arises from both spontaneous and explicit breaking. In the exact CFT limit, $V_0(\chi) = \kappa_0 \chi^4$. Including explicit breaking via spurion analysis,

$$V(\chi) = \chi^4[\,\kappa_0 - \kappa_1 X_0 (\chi/f)^{-\epsilon} + O(X_0^2)\,],$$

with $\kappa_{0,1}\sim O(1)$ (Chacko et al., 2012). Minimization yields a mass $m_\sigma^2 \sim \epsilon f^2$, i.e., the dilaton is naturally lighter than the strong coupling scale when $\epsilon\ll 1$.

Parameter	Definition	Role
$f$	spontaneous breaking scale of conformal symmetry	dilaton decay constant
$\sigma(x)$	dilaton field	NG boson of scale breaking
$O(x)$	explicit breaking operator, $\Delta = 4-\epsilon$	induces nonzero dilaton mass
$X_0$	$\lambda\Lambda^{\epsilon}$	RG running of explicit breaking
$\epsilon$	$4-\Delta$	deviation from marginality

3. Couplings to Standard Model and General Fields

Dilaton couplings are organized by scale symmetry/breaking patterns:

• Massive vector bosons ($W$, $Z$): Dilaton couples to mass terms via

$$\mathcal{L} \supset \frac{\chi^2}{f^2}[\,m_W^2 W^+_\mu W^{-\,\mu} + \tfrac12 m_Z^2 Z_\mu Z^\mu\,] \Rightarrow \mathcal{L}_{\sigma WW} = \frac{2\sigma}{f} m_W^2 W^+W^- + \ldots$$

• Massless gauge bosons (gluons, photons): Only the trace anomaly contributes, yielding anomaly-induced couplings

$$\mathcal{L}_{\sigma FF} = \frac{\sigma}{f} \frac{b_{\rm UV}-b_{\rm IR}}{32\pi^2} F_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu}.$$

These terms drive enhanced dilaton decays to gluons and photons.

• Fermion masses: For a Dirac mass term $m\bar\psi\psi$,

$$\mathcal{L}_{\sigma\psi\psi} = -\frac{\sigma}{f} m\bar\psi\psi.$$

Additional scaling-dimension corrections enter for elementary Higgs or partially composite fermion sectors (Chacko et al., 2012, Rose et al., 2012, Coriano et al., 2012).

4. Anomaly Matching, Wess–Zumino Construction, and Universality

The local dilaton effective action matches the trace anomaly of the underlying theory via a unique Wess–Zumino functional. For conformal RG flows,

$$S_{\rm WZ}[\tau,g] = -(a_{\rm UV}-a_{\rm IR}) \int d^4x \sqrt{-g}[\,\tau E_4 + 4 G^{\mu\nu}\partial_\mu\tau\partial_\nu\tau - 4 (\partial\tau)^2 \Box\tau + 2 (\partial\tau)^4 ]$$

where $E_4$ is the 4D Euler density and $G^{\mu\nu}$ the Einstein tensor (Gretsch et al., 2013, Kaplan et al., 2014, Rose et al., 2014). This term ensures that under a local Weyl transformation, the anomaly matches precisely: $$\delta_\omega S_{\rm WZ} = \int d^4x\,\sqrt{-g}\,\omega(x)\,(a_{\rm UV}E_4 + c_{\rm UV} W^2).$$ The dilaton self-interaction vertices vanish beyond four-point, fixing an infinite hierarchy of recurrence relations by the first four correlators (Rose et al., 2014).

5. Control and Size of Corrections

Symmetry-violating corrections to leading dilaton couplings scale as $O(X_0)\sim O(\epsilon)\sim O(m_\sigma^2/\Lambda^2)$, and thus are typically suppressed. For massive vectors and fermions, these corrections result in rescalings of $m^2$ and couplings, absorbed into redefinitions of $f$. For marginal operators (gauge kinetics), loop-suppressed corrections can compete with anomaly terms, affecting $gg\to\sigma$ or $\gamma\gamma\to\sigma$ processes (Chacko et al., 2012). As a result, collider signatures in gluon or photon channels are sensitive to these corrections at $O(1)$, rather than percent-level.

6. Dilaton Quantum Gravity and Cosmological Applications

When coupled to gravity, the dilaton effective action is

$$\Gamma_{\rm FP}[\chi,g] = \int d^4x\,\sqrt{g} \left[\tfrac12 (\partial\chi)^2 - \tfrac12 \xi \chi^2 R \right],$$

which is strictly scale-invariant and does not admit a cosmological constant term in the fixed-point limit (Henz et al., 2013, Henz et al., 2016). Spontaneous breaking via $\langle\chi\rangle\neq0$ generates a nonzero Planck mass $M^2=\xi\langle\chi\rangle^2$, yielding Einstein gravity plus a massless scalar. Departures from the fixed point introduce a dilatation anomaly, producing a dynamical dark energy (exponential potential) and an asymptotically vanishing cosmological constant: $V(\varphi) = \bar{V} e^{-2\varphi/M},$ with $\varphi$ the canonical dilaton (Henz et al., 2013). In cosmological FRG flows, scaling solutions interpolate between UV and IR fixed points, breaking scale symmetry spontaneously and enabling inflation and late-time quintessence (Henz et al., 2016). The effective cosmological constant vanishes asymptotically, providing a dynamical solution to the cosmological constant problem.

7. Technicolor, Composite Higgs, and Phenomenological Implications

The dilaton is generically present in models where electroweak symmetry breaking proceeds via strongly conformal dynamics, such as technicolor or composite Higgs/pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB) scenarios. When the breaking operator $O$ is nearly marginal ($\epsilon\ll 1$), the dilaton mass can be near the observed Higgs mass ($\sim125$ GeV) without fine-tuning (Chacko et al., 2012). Deviations from SM Higgs-like couplings are suppressed by $m_\sigma^2/\Lambda^2$ and typically lie at or below the percent level, except for gluon and photon fusion, where anomaly and symmetry-violating contributions can induce order-one effects. Experimental measurements of branching ratios in $\rho\to\gamma\gamma$ and $\rho\to gg$ can directly probe the underlying beta function structure and thus properties of the conformal sector (Rose et al., 2012, Coriano et al., 2012).

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References:

• "Effective Theory of a Light Dilaton" (Chacko et al., 2012)
• "Scaling solutions for Dilaton Quantum Gravity" (Henz et al., 2016)
• "Dilaton Quantum Gravity" (Henz et al., 2013)
• "Dilaton: Saving Conformal Symmetry" (Gretsch et al., 2013)
• "An Effective Theory for Holographic RG Flows" (Kaplan et al., 2014)
• "Dilaton Interactions in QCD and in the Electroweak Sector of the Standard Model" (Rose et al., 2012)
• "Dilaton Interactions and the Anomalous Breaking of Scale Invariance of the Standard Model" (Coriano et al., 2012)