Symmetry breaking

In <a href="/facts/Physics/a7aH2y08">physics</a>, symmetry breaking is a phenomenon where a disordered but <a href="/facts/Symmetry_in_quantum_mechanics/r0CYzmzs">symmetric state</a> collapses into an ordered, but less symmetric state. This collapse is often one of many possible <a href="/facts/Bifurcation_theory/sLsN54Rn">bifurcations</a> that a particle can take as it approaches a lower energy state. Due to the many possibilities, an observer may assume the result of the collapse to be arbitrary. This phenomenon is fundamental to <a href="/facts/Quantum_field_theory/VoewsNJV">quantum field theory</a> (QFT), and further, contemporary understandings of <a href="/facts/Physics/a7aH2y08">physics</a>. Specifically, it plays a central role in the <a href="/facts/Glashow%25E2%2580%2593Weinberg%25E2%2580%2593Salam_model/QATz4dYF">Glashow–Weinberg–Salam model</a> which forms part of the <a href="/facts/Standard_model/LhVGf9ow">Standard model</a> modelling the electroweak sector.In an infinite system (<a href="/facts/Minkowski_space/vDkfkQJn">Minkowski spacetime</a>) symmetry breaking occurs, however in a finite system (that is, any real super-condensed system), the system is less predictable, but in many cases <a href="/facts/Quantum_tunnelling/WU4NMrKx">quantum tunneling</a> occurs. Symmetry breaking and tunneling relate through the collapse of a particle into non-symmetric state as it seeks a lower energy.
Symmetry breaking can be distinguished into two types, <a href="/facts/Explicit_symmetry_breaking/Y1NetSrN">explicit</a> and <a href="/facts/Spontaneous_symmetry_breaking/VmXqNLlo">spontaneous</a>. They are characterized by whether the equations of motion fail to be invariant, or the <a href="/facts/Vacuum_state/dTvXYPad">ground state</a> fails to be invariant.

Symmetry breaking open-in-new

Symmetry breaking