Fermion systems in discrete space–time—outer symmetries and spontaneous symmetry breaking

Abstract

Felix FinsterA systematic procedure is developed for constructing fermion systems in discrete space–time which have a given outer symmetry. The construction is illustrated by simple examples. For the symmetric group, we derive constraints for the number of particles. In the physically interesting case of many particles and even more space–time points, this result shows that the permutation symmetry of discrete space–time is always spontaneously broken by the fermionic projector.