Does the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>Z</mml:mi></mml:math> boson have a lighter cousin?
In the quenched electroweak theory on the lattice I construct a set of physical states which overlap the physical photon and <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mi>Z</a:mi></a:math> boson states. This is done by employing eigenstates of the covariant lattice Laplacian, in addition to the Higgs and lattice link variables, to construct gauge invariant vector boson creation operators. Diagonalizing the transfer matrix in the subspace of Hilbert space spanned by this set yields a massless photon and massive <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mi>Z</c:mi></c:math> particle, as expected. But in the numerical data there is evidence for more vector bosons in the spectrum, albeit with considerable uncertainty in their masses, with the lowest finite mass particle in the range of 3–4 GeV.
Authors
- Jeff Greensite (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1720-9436)
Institutions
- San Francisco State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Published
- 2025-04-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.111.073005
- Primary Topic
- Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy