Abstract
We study the stability of the vacuum in a two-dimensional field theory with a fixed term and a variable coupling term. We make the theory finite by normal-ordering the Hamiltonian with respect to a fixed mass. As the coupling strength increases, we can show that the system will undergo a second-order phase transition from a normal vacuum to an abnormal vacuum. There is no contradiction between the existence of a second-order transition in the absence of an external field and the Simon-Griffiths theorems which forbid any possible phase transition in the presence of an external field.
- Received 9 February 1976
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.13.2778
©1976 American Physical Society