Symmetry allowed, but unobservable, phases in renormalizable Gauge Field Theory Models

In Quantum Field Theory models with spontaneously broken gauge invariance, renormalizability limits to four the degree of the Higgs potential, whose minima determine the vacuum state at tree-level. In many models, this bound has the intriguing consequence of preventing the observability, at tree-level, of some phases that would be allowed by symmetry. We show that, generally, the phenomenon persists also if one-loop radiative corrections are taken into account. The tree-level unobservability of some phases is characteristic in two-Higgs-doublet extensions of the Standard Model with additional discrete symmetries (to protect against neutral current flavor changing effects, for instance). We show that an extension of the scalar sector through suitable singlet fields can resolve the {\em unnatural} limitations on the observability of all the phases allowed by symmetry.