In physics, symmetry breaking is a phenomenon where a disordered but symmetric state collapses into an ordered, but less symmetric state. This collapse is often one of many possible bifurcations that a particle can take as it approaches a lower energy state. Due to the many possibilities, an observer may assume the result of the collapse to be arbitrary. This phenomenon is fundamental to quantum field theory (QFT), and further, contemporary understandings of physics. Specifically, it plays a central role in the Glashow–Weinberg–Salam model which forms part of the Standard Model modelling the electroweak sector.

In an infinite system (Minkowski spacetime) symmetry breaking occurs, however in a finite system (that is, any real super-condensed system), the system is less predictable, but in many cases quantum tunneling occurs. Symmetry breaking and tunneling relate through the collapse of a particle into non-symmetric state as it seeks a lower energy.

Symmetry breaking can be distinguished into two types, explicit and spontaneous. They are characterized by whether the equations of motion fail to be invariant, or the ground state fails to be invariant.

This section describes spontaneous symmetry breaking. This is the idea that for a physical system, the lowest energy configuration (the vacuum state) is not the most symmetric configuration of the system. Roughly speaking, there are three types of symmetry that can be broken: discrete, continuous and gauge, ordered in increasing technicality.

An example of a system with discrete symmetry is given by the figure with the red graph: consider a particle moving on this graph, subject to gravity. A similar graph could be given by the function ${\displaystyle f(x)=(x^{2}-a^{2})^{2}}$. This system is symmetric under reflection in the y-axis. There are three possible stationary states for the particle: the top of the hill at ${\displaystyle x=0}$, or the bottom, at ${\displaystyle x=\pm a}$. When the particle is at the top, the configuration respects the reflection symmetry: the particle stays in the same place when reflected. However, the lowest energy configurations are those at ${\displaystyle x=\pm a}$. When the particle is in either of these configurations, it is no longer fixed under reflection in the y-axis: reflection swaps the two vacuum states.

An example with continuous symmetry is given by a 3d analogue of the previous example, from rotating the graph around an axis through the top of the hill, or equivalently given by the graph ${\displaystyle f(x,y)=(x^{2}+y^{2}-a^{2})^{2}}$. This is essentially the graph of the Mexican hat potential. This has a continuous symmetry given by rotation about the axis through the top of the hill (as well as a discrete symmetry by reflection through any radial plane). Again, if the particle is at the top of the hill it is fixed under rotations, but it has higher gravitational energy at the top. At the bottom, it is no longer invariant under rotations but minimizes its gravitational potential energy. Furthermore rotations move the particle from one energy minimizing configuration to another. There is a novelty here not seen in the previous example: from any of the vacuum states it is possible to access any other vacuum state with only a small amount of energy, by moving around the trough at the bottom of the hill, whereas in the previous example, to access the other vacuum, the particle would have to cross the hill, requiring a large amount of energy.

Gauge symmetry breaking is the most subtle, but has important physical consequences. Roughly speaking, for the purposes of this section a gauge symmetry is an assignment of systems with continuous symmetry to every point in spacetime. Gauge symmetry forbids mass generation for gauge fields, yet massive gauge fields (W and Z bosons) have been observed. Spontaneous symmetry breaking was developed to resolve this inconsistency. The idea is that in an early stage of the universe it was in a high energy state, analogous to the particle being at the top of the hill, and so had full gauge symmetry and all the gauge fields were massless. As it cooled, it settled into a choice of vacuum, thus spontaneously breaking the symmetry, thus removing the gauge symmetry and allowing mass generation of those gauge fields. A full explanation is highly technical: see electroweak interaction.

In spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), the equations of motion of the system are invariant, but any vacuum state (lowest energy state) is not.