I'm not a math student, I'm just curious as to know why and how can a vacuum be more stable with high Vacuum expectation value than 0 vev. A similar question would be what does it mean when the EM and Weak force become symmetric at high energy. And why that exact symmetry value (also expressed in energy units and not-intuitive to me at least). Conceptually, I'm having a hard time understanding.
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1 Answer
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The Higgs potential energy is
$$ V(\phi) = - a \phi^2 + b \phi^4. $$
The minimum of $V$ is achieved at the nonzero value of $\phi$.
answered Jan 12, 2022 at 13:58
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$\begingroup$ Why is a negative instead of positive to make a smooth parabola with minimum at 0? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 14, 2022 at 15:47
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$\begingroup$ @BlueCrasho it just happens to be that way. The fundamental answer must lie in GUT which isn’t known yet $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 14, 2022 at 16:11