This open access book is about spontaneous symmetry breaking which is a classic area of
theoretical physics that lies at the core of many fascinating phenomena such as ferromagnetism
superfluidity superconductivity or the Higgs mechanism. The book brings an up-to-date
overview of spontaneous symmetry breaking and of modern effective field theory description
thereof. The topics covered include the classification of Nambu-Goldstone bosons nonlinear
realization of internal and spacetime symmetries and the construction of the corresponding
effective actions and selected applications. With in-depth exposition of conceptual
foundations and numerous illustrative examples the book is accessible to anybody having taken
a basic course on quantum field theory. It serves as a self-contained text for graduate
students and junior researchers in diverse areas of physics but also as a useful reference for
experts.
