A recent reformulation of the scalar-vector sector of standard electroweak theory (without a Higgs potential), in terms of manifestly $SU(2{)}_W$ gauge-invariant variables, is extended so that all field variables in the action are manifestly free of the residual $U(1{)}_{\mathrm{em}}$ gauge transformations as well. Functional evaluation of the one-loop gauge-free effective Higgs potential is shown to precisely cancel effects due to the local functional measure of the Higgs field found earlier. The implications for the classical interpretation of the Higgs scalar as the dilaton field in a background conformal gravity theory are discussed. The Higgs scalar is shown to radiatively acquire a one-loop vacuum expectation value which gives masses to the $W$ and $Z$ bosons but not to photons, without any notion of “spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking” appearing anywhere. Further, the renormalization scale is fixed in this theory by requiring that $W$ and $Z$ boson masses coincide with their experimentally measured values, thereby precluding any “naturalness” problem usually associated with uncontrolled running of such a scale.

• Received 27 September 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.83.085019