In this chapter, a model is considered that can be defined in continuous dimensions, the Gross– Neveu–Yukawa (GNY) model, which involves N Dirac fermions and one scalar field. The model has a continuous U(N) symmetry, and a discrete symmetry, which prevents the addition of a fermion mass term to the action. For a specific value of a coefficient of the action, the model undergoes a continuous phase transition. The broken phase illustrates a mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking, leading to spontaneous fermion mass generation like in the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. In four dimensions, the GNY can be considered as a toy model to represent the interactions between the top quark and the Higgs boson, the heaviest particles of the SM of fundamental interactions, when the gauge fields are omitted. The model is renormalizable in four dimensions and its renormalization group (RG) properties can be studied in d = 4 and d = 4 − ϵ dimensions. A model of self-interacting fermions with the same symmetries and fermion content, the Gross–Neveu (GN) model, has been widely studied. In perturbation theory, for d > 2, it describes only a phase with massless fermions but, in d = 2 + ϵ dimensions, the RG indicates that, at a critical value of the coupling constant, the model experiences a phase transition. In two dimensions, it is renormalizable and exhibits the phenomenon of asymptotic freedom. The massless phase becomes infrared unstable and there is strong evidence that the spectrum corresponds to spontaneous symmetry breaking and fermion mass generation.
Fermion mass without symmetry breaking