Speaker
Maki Takeuchi
(Kobe University)
Description
We investigate the vacuum structure of a complex scalar field on a two-dimensional torus with quantized magnetic flux M. A characteristic feature of this system is that a nonvanishing vacuum expectation value with nontrivial dependence on the coordinates of the torus emerges when the torus area exceeds a critical value. Using the lowest-mode approximation, we find one, two, and six vacuum configurations for M=1,2, and 3, respectively. We also examine the symmetry properties of these vacuum configurations and discuss whether the symmetries of the underlying system are preserved or spontaneously broken.