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arXiv:1208.2181 · Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields

Functional renormalization group flow of the effective Hamiltonian action

Gian Paolo Vacca, Luca Zambelli

Published Oct 26, 2012• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

After a brief review of the definition and properties of the quantum effective Hamiltonian action, we describe its renormalization flow by a functional renormalization group equation. This equation can be used for a nonperturbative quantization and study of theories with bare Hamiltonians that are not quadratic in the momenta. As an example, the vacuum energy and gap of quantum mechanical models are computed. Extensions of this framework to quantum field theories are discussed. In particular, one possible Lorentz-covariant approach for simple scalar field theories is developed. Fermionic degrees of freedom, being naturally described by a first order formulation, can easily be accommodated in this approach.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.86.085041

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After a brief review of the definition and properties of the quantum effective Hamiltonian action, we describe its renormalization flow by a functional renormalization group equation. This equation can be used for a nonperturbative quantization and study of theories with bare Hamiltonians that are not quadratic in the momenta. As an example, the vacuum energy and gap of quantum mechanical models are computed. Extensions of this framework to quantum field theories are discussed. In particular, one possible Lorentz-covariant approach for simple scalar field theories is developed. Fermionic degrees of freedom, being naturally described by a first order formulation, can easily be accommodated in this approach.
Numerous correlated electron systems exhibit a strongly scale-dependent behavior. Upon lowering the energy scale, collective phenomena, bound states, and new effective degrees of freedom emerge. Typical examples include (i) competing magnetic, charge, and pairing instabilities in two-dimensional electron systems; (ii) the interplay of electronic excitations and order parameter fluctuations near thermal and quantum phase transitions in metals; and (iii) correlation effects such as Luttinger liquid behavior and the Kondo effect showing up in linear and nonequilibrium transport through quantum wires and quantum dots. The functional renormalization group is a flexible and unbiased tool for dealing with such scale-dependent behavior. Its starting point is an exact functional flow equation, which yields the gradual evolution from a microscopic model action to the final effective action as a function of a continuously decreasing energy scale. Expanding in powers of the fields one obtains an exact hierarchy of flow equations for vertex functions. Truncations of this hierarchy have led to powerful new approximation schemes. This review is a comprehensive introduction to the functional renormalization group method for interacting Fermi systems. A self-contained derivation of the exact flow equations is presented and frequently used truncation schemes are described. Reviewing selected applications it is shown how approximations based on the functional renormalization group can be fruitfully used to improve our understanding of correlated fermion systems.
The functional renormalization group (FRG) approach is a powerful tool for studies of a large variety of systems, ranging from statistical physics over the theory of the strong interaction to gravity. The practical application of this approach relies on the derivation of so-called flow equations, which describe the change of the quantum effective action under the variation of a coarse-graining parameter. In the present work, we discuss in detail a novel approach to solve such flow equations. This approach relies on the fact that RG equations can be rewritten such that they exhibit similarities with the conservation laws of fluid dynamics. This observation can be exploited in different ways. First of all, we show that this allows to employ powerful numerical techniques developed in the context of fluid dynamics to solve RG equations. In particular, it allows us to reliably treat the emergence of nonanalytic behavior in the RG flow of the effective action as it is expected to occur in studies of, e.g., spontaneous symmetry breaking. Second, the analogy between RG equations and fluid dynamics offers the opportunity to gain novel insights into RG flows and their interpretation in general, including the irreversibility of RG flows. We work out this connection in practice by applying it to zero-dimensional quantum-field theoretical models. The generalization to higher-dimensional models is also discussed. Our findings are expected to help improving future FRG studies of quantum field theories in higher dimensions both on a qualitative and quantitative level.
Bosonization allows one to describe the low-energy physics of one-dimensional quantum fluids within a bosonic effective field theory formulated in terms of two fields: the ``density’’ field \varphi φ and its conjugate partner, the phase \vartheta ϑ of the superfluid order parameter. We discuss the implementation of the nonperturbative functional renormalization group in this formalism, considering a Luttinger liquid in a periodic potential as an example. We show that in order for \vartheta ϑ and \varphi φ to remain conjugate variables at all energy scales, one must dynamically redefine the field \vartheta ϑ along the renormalization-group flow. We derive explicit flow equations using a derivative expansion of the scale-dependent effective action to second order and show that they reproduce the flow equations of the sine-Gordon model (obtained by integrating out the field \vartheta ϑ from the outset) derived within the same approximation. Only with the scale-dependent (flowing) reparametrization of the phase field \vartheta ϑ do we obtain the standard phenomenology of the Luttinger liquid (when the periodic potential is sufficiently weak so as to avoid the Mott-insulating phase) characterized by two low-energy parameters, the velocity of the sound mode and the renormalized Luttinger parameter.
Numerical fluid dynamics for FRG flow equations: Zero-dimensional QFTs as numerical test cases - Part I: The O(N)O(N)O(N) model
The functional renormalization group (FRG) approach is a powerful tool for studies of a large variety of systems, ranging from statistical physics over the theory of the strong interaction to gravity. The practical application of this approach relies on the derivation of so-called flow equations, which describe the change of the quantum effective action under the variation of a coarse-graining parameter. In the present work, we discuss in detail a novel approach to solve such flow equations. This approach relies on the fact that RG equations can be rewritten such that they exhibit similarities with the conservation laws of fluid dynamics. This observation can be exploited in different ways. First of all, we show that this allows to employ powerful numerical techniques developed in the context of fluid dynamics to solve RG equations. In particular, it allows to reliably treat the emergence of non-analytic behavior in the RG flow of the effective action as it is expected to occur in studies of, e.g., spontaneous symmetry breaking. Second, the analogy between RG equations and fluid dynamics offers the opportunity to gain novel insights into RG flows and their interpretation in general, including the irreversibility of RG flows. We work out this connection in practice by applying it to zero-dimensional quantum-field theoretical models. The generalization to higher-dimensional models is also discussed. Our findings are expected to help improving future FRG studies of quantum field theories in higher dimensions both on a qualitative and quantitative level.
We describe a Wick ordered functional renormalization group method for interacting Fermi systems, where the effective low-energy action is generated from the bare action of the microscopic model by a differential flow equation. We apply this renormalization group approach to a prototypical two-dimensional lattice electron system, the Hubbard model on a square lattice. The flow equation for the effective interactions is evaluated numerically on 1-loop level. The effective interactions diverge at a finite energy scale which is exponentially small for small bare interactions. To analyze the nature of the instabilities signaled by the diverging interactions, the flow of the singlet superconducting susceptibilities for various pairing symmetries and also charge and spin density susceptibilities are computed. This and similar RG calculations by others conclusively establish the existence of d-wave superconductivity in the Hubbard model.
We compare different versions of a bosonic description for systems of interacting fermions, with particular emphasis on the free-energy functional. The bosonic effective action makes the issue of symmetries particularly transparent. A systematic expansion for the bosonic effective action starts with a solution to the lowest-order Schwinger-Dyson or gap equation. We propose a two-particle irreducible formulation of an exact functional renormalization group equation for computations beyond leading order. On this basis we suggest a renormalized gap equation. This approach is compared with functional renormalization in a partially bosonized setting.