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In explicit symmetry breaking, the equations of motion of a physical system are variant under the broken symmetry; by contrast, for spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), these equations are invariant, but the entire system is not because its vacuum (background) is non-invariant. Further use for the SSB characteristic nonlinear realizations (Goldstone mode), and the group theoretical patterns involved.

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Georgi-Glashow model and the VEV of the scalar field

Consider the Georgi-Glashow model, an $SU(2)$ gauge theory with a real scalar in the adjoint (thus a 3-vector in the colour space) $\phi$. The Lagrangian is $$ L = -\frac{1}{4g^2} F_{\mu \nu}^{\, a} …
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2 votes

Why does the Higgs field have less energy when it's non-zero than when it's zero?

From the form of the Higgs potential (which is quartic, the famous Mexican hat) you can see that for $\Re \phi =0$ as well as for $\Im \phi=0$ (the real and imaginary parts of the Higgs field), it is …
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