Differential real-space renormalization of thed-Dimensional Gaussian model

With the aid of the differential real-space method we derive exact renormalization group (RG) equations for the Gaussian model ind dimensions. The equations involved + 1 spatially dependent nearest-neighbor interactions. We locate a critical fixed point and obtain the exact thermal critical indexy _T = 2. A special trajectory of the full nonlinear RG transformation is found and the free energy of the corresponding initial state calculated.Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through Sonderforschungsbereich 130 Ferroelektrika.     

Renormalization-Group Method for Reduction of Evolution Equations; Invariant Manifolds and Envelopes

The renormalization group (RG) method as a powerful tool for reduction of evolution equations is formulated in terms of the notion of invariant manifolds. We start with derivation of an exact RG equation which is analogous to the Wilsonian RG equations in statistical physics and quantum field theory. It is clarified that the perturbative RG method constructs invariant manifolds successively as the initial value of evolution equations, thereby the meaning to set t₀=t is naturally understood where t₀ is the arbitrary initial time. We show that the integral constants in the unperturbative solution constitutes natural coordinates of the invariant manifold when the linear operator A in the evolution equation is semi-simple, i.e., diagonalizable; when A is not semi-simple and has a Jordan cell, a slight modification is necessary because the dimension of the invariant manifold is increased by the perturbation. The RG equation determines the slow motion of the would-be integral constants in the unperturbative solution on the invariant manifold. We present the mechanical procedure to construct the perturbative solutions hence the initial values with which the RG equation gives meaningful results. The underlying structure of the reduction by the RG method as formulated in the present work turns out to completely fit to the universal one elucidated by Kuramoto some years ago. We indicate that the reduction procedure of evolution equations has a good correspondence with the renormalization procedure in quantum field theory; the counter part of the universal structure of reduction elucidated by Kuramoto may be Polchinski's theorem for renormalizable field theories. We apply the method to interface dynamics such as kink–anti-kink and soliton–soliton interactions in the latter of which a linear operator having a Jordan-cell structure appears.     

Exact renormalization group and running Newtonian coupling in higher-derivative gravity

We discuss exact renormalization group (RG) in R ² gravity using the effective average action formalism. The truncated evolution equation for such a theory against the de Sitter background leads to a system of nonperturbative RG equations for cosmological and gravitational coupling constants. An approximate solution of these RG equations shows that antiscreening or screening behavior of the Newtonian coupling arises, depending on the higher-derivative coupling constants. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 8, 571–575 (25 April 1997) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Epsilon expansion for multicritical fixed points and exact renormalisation group equations

The Polchinski version of the exact renormalisation group equations is applied to multicritical fixed points, which are present for dimensions between two and four, for scalar theories using both the local potential approximation and its extension, the derivative expansion. The results are compared with the epsilon expansion by showing that the nonlinear differential equations may be linearised at each multicritical point and the epsilon expansion treated as a perturbative expansion. The results for critical exponents are compared with corresponding epsilon expansion results from standard perturbation theory. The results provide a test for the validity of the local potential approximation and also the derivative expansion. An alternative truncation of the exact RG equation leads to equations which are similar to those found in the derivative expansion but which gives correct results for critical exponents to order ε and also for the field anomalous dimension to order ε². An exact marginal operator for the full RG equations is also constructed.     

Phase transition in the 3d random field Ising model

We show that the three-dimensional Ising model coupled to a small random magnetic field is ordered at low temperatures. This means that the lower critical dimension,d _l for the theory isd _l 2, settling a long controversy on the subject. Our proof is based on an exact Renormalization Group (RG) analysis of the system. This analysis is carried out in the domain wall representation of the system and it is inspired by the scaling arguments of Imry and Ma. The RG acts in the space of Ising models and in the space of random field distributions, driving the former to zero temperature and the latter to zero variance.     

Renormalisation group for depinning transition ind=2 ising models

We develop a position space renormalisation group (RG) method to study generalised depinning transition in two-dimensional Ising models. The treatment encompasses (i) the original model for depinning invented by Abraham, (ii) generalised depinning model, (iii) nonuniversal behaviour near the internal line of defects and (iv) surface and interface behaviour. The phase diagrams and the thermodynamic functions over the whole range of temperatures are obtained. The agreement with exact results (when available) is quite satisfactory.     

Exact Renormalization Group Analysis of Turbulent Transport by the Shear Flow

The exact renormalization group (RG) method initiated by Wilson and further developed by Polchinski is used to study the shear flow model proposed by Avellaneda and Majda as a simplified model for the diffusive transport of a passive scalar by a turbulent velocity field. It is shown that this exact RG method is capable of recovering all the scaling regimes as the spectral parameters of velocity statistics vary, found by Avellaneda and Majda in their rigorous study of this model. This gives further confidence that the RG method, if implemented in the right way instead of using drastic truncations as in the Yakhot-Orszag’s approximate RG scheme, does give the correct prediction for the large scale behaviors of solutions of stochastic partial differential equations (PDE). We also derive the analog of the “large eddy simulation” models when a finite amount of small scales are eliminated from the problem.     

Application of bond-moving renormalization-group approach to fractal lattices

We investigate the application of the Migdal-Kadanoff bond-moving renormalization group (RG) approach to fractal lattices. We find the following two results: first, for inhomogeneous interaction lattice models, bond moving involving inequivalent bonds is unsuitable because it violates the condition <Δ>=0 (Δ is the perturbation potential resulting from moving the bonds); second, the condition <Δ>=0 does not uniquely determine the way to move bonds; different choices of bond moving yield different RG recursion relations and corresponding fixed points, which makes the conclusions concerning the phase transition quite uncertain.     

Renormalization group approach to a p-wave superconducting model

We present in this work an exact renormalization group (RG) treatment of a one-dimensional p-wave superconductor. The model proposed by Kitaev consists of a chain of spinless fermions with a p-wave gap. It is a paradigmatic model of great actual interest since it presents a weak pairing superconducting phase that has Majorana fermions at the ends of the chain. Those are predicted to be useful for quantum computation. The RG allows to obtain the phase diagram of the model and to study the quantum phase transition from the weak to the strong pairing phase. It yields the attractors of these phases and the critical exponents of the weak to strong pairing transition. We show that the weak pairing phase of the model is governed by a chaotic attractor being non-trivial from both its topological and RG properties. In the strong pairing phase the RG flow is towards a conventional strong coupling fixed point. Finally, we propose an alternative way for obtaining p-wave superconductivity in a one-dimensional system without spin–orbit interaction.     

Renormalization group approach to interacting fermion systems in the two-particle-irreducible formalism

We describe a new formulation of the functional renormalization group (RG) for interacting fermions within a Wilsonian momentum-shell approach. We show that the Luttinger-Ward functional is invariant under the RG transformation, and derive the infinite hierarchy of flow equations satisfied by the two-particle-irreducible (2PI) vertices. In the one-loop approximation, this hierarchy reduces to two equations that determine the self-energy and the 2PI two-particle vertex Φ⁽²⁾. Susceptibilities are calculated from the Bethe-Salpeter equation that relates them to Φ⁽²⁾. While the one-loop approximation breaks down at low energy in one-dimensional systems (for reasons that we discuss), it reproduces the exact results both in the normal and ordered phases in single-channel (i.e. mean-field) theories, as shown on the example of BCS theory. The possibility to continue the RG flow into broken-symmetry phases is an essential feature of the 2PI RG scheme and is due to the fact that the 2PI two-particle vertex, contrary to its 1PI counterpart, is not singular at a phase transition. Moreover, the normal phase RG equations can be directly used to derive the Ginzburg-Landau expansion of the thermodynamic potential near a phase transition. We discuss the implementation of the 2PI RG scheme to interacting fermion systems beyond the examples (one-dimensional systems and BCS superconductors) considered in this paper.     

A nontrivial Renormalization Group fixed point for the Dyson-Baker hierarchical model

We prove the existence of a nontrivial Renormalization Group (RG) fixed point for the Dyson-Baker hierarchical model ind=3 dimensions. The single spin distribution of the fixed point is shown to be entire analytic, and bounded by exp(–const×t ⁶) for large real values of the spint. Our proof is based on estimates for the zeros of a RG fixed point for Gallavotti's hierarchical model. We also present some general results for the heat flow on a space of entire functions, including an order preserving property for zeros, which is used in the RG analysis.Supported in Part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMS-9103590.Supported in Part by the Swiss National Science Foundation.     

Critical exponents predicted by grouping of Feynman diagrams in φ4 model

Different perturbation theory treatments of the Ginzburg‐Landau phase transition model are discussed. This includes a criticism of the perturbative renormalization group (RG) approach and a proposal of a novel method providing critical exponents consistent with the known exact solutions in two dimensions. The usual perturbation theory is reorganized by appropriate grouping of Feynman diagrams of φ⁴ model with O(n) symmetry. As a result, equations for calculation of the two‐point correlation function are obtained which allow to predict possible exact values of critical exponents in two and three dimensions by proving relevant scaling properties of the asymptotic solution at (and near) the criticality. The new values of critical exponents are discussed and compared to the results of numerical simulations and experiments.     

Scale invariant dynamics of surface growth

We describe in detail and extend a recently introduced nonperturbative renormalization group (RG) method for surface growth. The scale invariant dynamics which is the key ingredient of the calculation is obtained as the fixed point of a RG transformation relating the representation of the microscopic process at two different coarse-grained scales. We review the RG calculation for systems in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class and compute the roughness exponent for the strong coupling phase in dimensions from 1 to 9. Discussions of the approximations involved and possible improvements are also presented. Moreover, very strong evidence of the absence of a finite upper critical dimension for KPZ growth is presented. Finally, we apply the method to the linear Edwards-Wilkinson dynamics where we reproduce the known exact results, proving the ability of the method to capture qualitatively different behaviors.     

Fermi liquid theory: a renormalization group approach

We show how Fermi liquid theory results can be systematically recovered using a renormalization group (RG) approach. Considering a two-dimensional system with a circular Fermi surface, we derive RG equations at one-loop order for the two-particle vertex function in the limit of small momentum () and energy () transfer and obtain the equation which determines the collective modes of a Fermi liquid. The density-density response function is also calculated. The Landau function (or, equivalently, the Landau parameters F _l ^s and F _l ^a ) is determined by the fixed point value of the -limit of the two-particle vertex function (). We show how the results obtained at one-loop order can be extended to all orders in a loop expansion. Calculating the quasi-particle life-time and renormalization factor at two-loop order, we reproduce the results obtained from two-dimensional bosonization or Ward Identities. We discuss the zero-temperature limit of the RG equations and the difference between the Field Theory and the Kadanoff-Wilson formulations of the RG. We point out the importance of n-body () interactions in the latter. Received: 27 June 1997 / Received in final form: 17 December 1997 / Accepted: 26 January 1998     

Ghost-matter mixing and feigenbaum universality in string theory

Branelike vertex operators, defining backgrounds with ghost-matter mixing in Neveu-Schwarz-Ramond superstring theory, play an important role in a world-sheet formulation of D branes and M theory, being creation operators for extended objects in the second quantized formalism. We show that the dilaton beta function in ghost-matter mixing backgrounds becomes stochastic. The renormalization group (RG) equations in ghost-matter mixing backgrounds lead to non-Markovian Fokker-Planck equations whose solutions describe superstrings in curved spacetimes with branelike metrics. We show that the Feigenbaum universality constant δ=4.669 ..., describing transitions from order to chaos in a huge variety of dynamical systems, appears analytically in these RG equations. We find that the appearance of this constant is related to the scaling of relative spacetime curvatures at fixed points of the RG flow. In this picture, the fixed points correspond to the period doubling of Feigenbaum iterational schemes.

     

Kondo screening cloud around a quantum dot: large-scale numerical results

Measurements of the persistent current in a ring containing a quantum dot would afford a unique opportunity to finally detect the elusive Kondo screening cloud. We present the first large-scale numerical results on this controversial subject using exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group (RG). These extremely challenging numerical calculations confirm RG arguments for weak to strong coupling crossover with varying ring length and give results on the universal scaling functions. We also study, analytically and numerically, the important and surprising effects of particle-hole symmetry breaking.     

On the symmetry of real-space renormalisation

A geometric structure, arising from the embedding into a Hilbert space of the parametrised probability measure for a given lattice model, is applied here to study the symmetry properties of real-space renormalisation group (RG) flow. In the projective state space this flow is shown to have two contributions: a gradient term, which generates a projective automorphism of the state space for each given length scale; and a correction term due to the scale change. We argue that this structure implies the absence of any symmetry of a geodesic type for the RG flow when restricted to the parameter space submanifold of the state space. This is demonstrated explicitly via a study of the one-dimensional Ising model in an external field. In this example we construct exact expressions for the beta functions associated with the flow induced by infinitesimal rescaling. These constitute a generating vector field for RG diffeomorphisms on the parameter space manifold, and we analyse the symmetry properties of this transformation. The results indicate an approximate conformal Killing symmetry near the critical point, but no generic symmetry of the RG flow globally on the parameter space.     

The background scale Ward identity in quantum gravity

We show that with suitable choices of parametrization, gauge fixing and cutoff, the anomalous variation of the effective action under global rescalings of the background metric is identical to the derivative with respect to the cutoff, i.e. to the beta functional, as defined by the exact RG equation. The Ward identity and the RG equation can be combined, resulting in a modified flow equation that is manifestly invariant under global background rescalings.     

Coupled-channel effective field theory and proton- <Superscript>7</Superscript>Li scattering

We apply the renormalisation group (RG) to analyse scattering by short-range forces in systems with coupled channels. For two S -wave channels, we find three fixed points, corresponding to systems with zero, one or two bound or virtual states at threshold. We use the RG to determine the power countings for the resulting effective field theories. In the case of a single low-energy state, the resulting theory takes the form of an effective-range expansion in the strongly interacting channel. We also extend the analysis to include the effects of the Coulomb interaction between charged particles. The approach is then applied to the coupled p + ^7Li     

A perturbative nonequilibrium renormalization group method for dissipative quantum mechanics

We study a generic problem of dissipative quantum mechanics, a small local quantum system with discrete states coupled in an arbitrary way (i.e. not necessarily linear) to several infinitely large particle or heat reservoirs. For both bosonic or fermionic reservoirs we develop a quantum field-theoretical diagrammatic formulation in Liouville space by expanding systematically in the reservoir-system coupling and integrating out the reservoir degrees of freedom. As a result we obtain a kinetic equation for the reduced density matrix of the quantum system. Based on this formalism, we present a formally exact perturbative renormalization group (RG) method from which the kernel of this kinetic equation can be calculated. It is demonstrated how the nonequilibrium stationary state (induced by several reservoirs kept at different chemical potentials or temperatures), arbitrary observables such as the transport current, and the time evolution into the stationary state can be calculated. Most importantly, we show how RG equations for the relaxation and dephasing rates can be derived and how they cut off generically the RG flow of the vertices. The method is based on a previously derived real-time RG technique [1-4] but formulated here in Laplace space and generalized to arbitrary reservoir-system couplings. Furthermore, for fermionic reservoirs with flat density of states, we make use of a recently introduced cutoff scheme on the imaginary frequency axis [5] which has several technical advantages. Besides the formal set-up of the RG equations for generic problems of dissipative quantum mechanics, we demonstrate the method by applying it to the nonequilibrium isotropic Kondo model. We present a systematic way to solve the RG equations analytically in the weak-coupling limit and provide an outlook of the applicability to the strong-coupling case.