A new approach to spontaneously broken conformal symmetry (Q1118184)

We present a new method for constructing theories of gravitation which exhibit spontaneously broken conformal symmetry. It does not require introducing nongeometric terms (i.e., auxiliary gauge fields or potential terms for the conformal field) into the Lagrangian. It is based on a theory which initially is locally both Lorentz invariant and Weyl gauge invariant in D dimensions. It is shown that, if the field Lagrangian contains terms quadratic in curvature in addition to the Ricci scalar, then the field equations allow both the dilation field and some connection components to have nonvanishing vacuum values. Both Lorentz and Weyl symmetries are thereby broken simultaneously.