Spontaneously generated gauge invariance

Abstract

We argue that the non-observability of the spontaneous breakdown of Lorentz symmetry (SBLS) caused by the vacuum expectation values of vector fields could provide the origin of all internal symmetries observed. Remarkably, the application of this principle to the most general relativistically invariant Lagrangian, with arbitrary couplings for all the fields involved, leads by itself to the appearance of a symmetry and, what is more, to the massless vector field(s) gauging this symmetry. A simple model for the SBLS based on massive vector and real scalar field interactions is considered; it is found that spontaneously broken gauge symmetries could also appear, when SBLS happens and is required to be physically unobservable.