A possible new phase in non-perturbatively gauge-fixed Yang-Mills theory

The standard expectation is that gauge fixing cannot alter the physics in the physical sector of a Yang-Mills theory. Here we argue that this may not always be true: in an SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in which the $SU(2)/U(1)$ coset is non-perturbatively gauge fixed, we find that a new phase, with spontaneous symmetry breaking and a Higgs-like mechanism, appears to be a possibility.