Spontaneous generation of a crystalline ground state in a higher derivative theory

•Higher derivative theory.•Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in momentum space.•Possible application in Horava gravity.

The possibility of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in momentum space in a generic Lifshitz scalar model–a non-relativistic scalar field theory with higher spatial derivative terms–has been studied. We show that the minimum energy state, the ground state, has a lattice structure, where the translation invariance of the continuum theory is reduced to a discrete translation symmetry. The scale of translation symmetry breaking (or induced lattice spacing) is proportional to the inverse of the momentum of the condensate particle. The crystalline ground state is stable under excitations below a certain critical velocity. The small fluctuations above the ground state can have a phonon like dispersion under suitable choice of parameters.At the beginning we have discussed the effects of next to nearest neighbor interaction terms in a model of linear triatomic molecule depicted by a linear system of three particles of same mass connected by identical springs. This model is relevant since in the continuum limit the next to nearest neighbor interaction terms generate higher (spatial) derivative wave equation, the main topic of this paper.