Abstract
The relationship between the masslessness of a photon and the realization of global symmetries in QED is examined. We show that the photon is a Goldstone boson resulting from the spontaneous breakdown of a symmetry whose conserved current is [Formula: see text]. In the Higgs phase this symmetry is unbroken, but there are no particles carrying the corresponding charges. Therefore, although the symmetry does not commute with the Lorentz group, there is no contradiction with the Coleman-Mandula theorem. The Coulomb-Higgs phase transition is interpreted as the usual global symmetry breaking phase transition rather than “gauge symmetry breaking.”
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