Massive spin-one fields from couplings with five massless real scalars

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper we implement a new procedure by which one may generate mass for a vector field in the context of its interactions to a system of five real scalar fields. This purpose will be achieved by means of the general multi-step program from [1] adapted to the present situation: (1) we begin with a free theory in four space-time dimensions whose Lagrangian action is given by the sum between the standard Maxwell action and that for a collection consisting in five massless real scalar fields; (2) we construct a general class of gauge theories whose free limit is that from step (1) by means of the deformation of the solution to the master equation [2,3] with the help of local BRST cohomology [4-6]; (3) we perform some suitable redefinitions of the free parameters that label interacting theories from (2) such that the mass terms become manifest in the new free limit. The outputs of our procedure can be synthesized in: (A) the vector field acquires mass; (B) the scalar fields gain gauge transformations; (C) the gauge algebras of the interacting theories are Abelian; (D) the propagator of the massive vector field emerging from the gauge-fixed actions behaves, in the limit of large Euclidean momenta, like that from the massless case.