Statistics, Condensation and the Anderson-Higgs Mechanism: The Worldline Path Integral View


Abstract in English

We explain, in the first quantized path integral formalism, the mechanism behind the Anderson-Higgs effect for a gas of charged bosons in a background magnetic field, and then use the method to prove the absence of the effect for a gas of fermions. The exchange statistics are encoded via the inclusion of additional Grassmann coordinates in a manner that leads to a manifest worldline supersymmetry. This extra symmetry is key in demonstrating the absence of the effect for charged fermions.

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