Effective field theory for a heavy Higgs boson: A manifestly gauge-invariant approach.

For large values of the Higgs boson mass the low energy structure of the gauged linear {sigma} model in the spontaneously broken phase can adequately be described by an effective field theory. In this work we present a manifestly gauge-invariant technique to explicitly evaluate the corresponding effective Langrangian from the underlying theory. In order to demonstrate the application of this functional method, the effective field theory of the Abelian Higgs model is thoroughly analyzed. We stress that this technique does not rely on any particular property of the Abelian case. The application to the non-Abelian theory is outlined. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}