Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a spontaneous process of symmetry breaking, by which a physical system in a symmetrical state ends up in an asymmetrical state. In particular, it can describe systems where the equations of motion or the Lagrangian obey symmetries, but the lowest-energy vacuum solutions do not exhibit that same symmetry.

Quotes

• There is nothing mysterious about spontaneous symmetry breaking. There are many examples in physics. Hold a drinking straw between the palms of your hands and you have a physical system that can be described by equations possessing rotational symmetry. Press your palms together and the straw bends. The symmetry is broken. You cannot necessarily predict how the straw will bend; it could bend "up," "down," "sideways," or in any other direction. This unsymmetrical situation, however, is the stable solution of perfectly symmetrical equations.
  • Stephen Webb (25 May 2004). Out of this World: Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild Ideas of Modern Physics. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-387-02930-6. 

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