Abstract By exploiting the convexity of the two-particle-irreducible effective action, we describe a procedure for extracting n-point vertex functions. This procedure is developed within the context of a zero-dimensional ‘quantum field theory’ and subsequently extended to higher dimensions. These results extend the practicability and utility of a recent, alternative approach to the functional renormalization group programme (see Alexander et al 2021 Phys. Rev. D 104 069906; Millington and Saffin 2021 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 54 465401), and clarify the relationship between the flow equations for coupling parameters and vertices.
Abstract By exploiting the convexity of the two-particle-irreducible effective action, we describe a procedure for extracting n-point vertex functions. This procedure is developed within the context of a zero-dimensional ‘quantum field theory’ and subsequently extended to higher dimensions. These results extend the practicability and utility of a recent, alternative approach to the functional renormalization group programme (see Alexander et al 2021 Phys. Rev. D 104 069906; Millington and Saffin 2021 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 54 465401), and clarify the relationship between the flow equations for coupling parameters and vertices.
One-particle irreducible vertices encode renormalized interactions in quantum field theories, but their practical treatment remains challenging due to their high dimensionality and nontrivial dependence on external variables such as momenta or frequencies. We develop a functional framework that algebraically reorganizes the diagrammatic content of the vertex functions into more efficient building blocks and reveals several established vertex decompositions, such as parquet, single-boson exchange, asymptotic classes and symmetric estimators, as different realizations of a common functional structure. Based on Legendre transforms of the effective action of composite fields, the formalism shows that different vertex representations arise from different choices of composite degrees of freedom. We demonstrate that in our framework higher-order vertices can be systematically obtained via tree expansions, thereby extending the aforementioned decompositions beyond the four-point level. Because our findings are independent of any specific physical setting, the framework applies broadly to quantum field theories in condensed matter physics, particle physics, and beyond.
Numerical fluid dynamics for FRG flow equations: Zero-dimensional QFTs as numerical test cases - Part I: The 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.
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.
We study the renormalization group flow of the Luttinger-Ward functional and of its two-particle-irreducible vertex functions, given a cutoff in the two-particle interaction. We derive a conserving approximation to the flow and relate it to the fluctuation exchange approximation as well as to nonconserving approximations introduced in an earlier publication [J. F. Rentrop, S. G. Jakobs, and V. Meden, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 48, 145002 (2015)]. We apply the different approximate flow equations to the single-impurity Anderson model in thermal equilibrium at vanishing temperature. Numerical results for the effective mass, the spin susceptibility, the charge susceptibility, and the linear conductance reflect the similarity of the methods to the fluctuation exchange approximation. We find the majority of the approximations to deviate stronger from the exact results than one-particle-irreducible functional renormalization group schemes. However, we identify a simple static two-particle-irreducible flow scheme which performs remarkably well and produces an exponential Kondo-like scale in the renormalized level position.
We derive functional renormalization group (fRG) schemes for Fermi systems which are based on the two-particle irreducible approach to the quantum many-body problem. In a first step, the cutoff is introduced in the non-interacting propagator as it is commonly done in fRG based on one-particle irreducible vertex functions. The most natural truncation of the resulting infinite hierarchy of flow equations is shown to be fully equivalent to self-consistent perturbation theory. An earlier suggested alternative truncation strategy is considered as well. In a second step, the cutoff is introduced in the two-particle interaction. Again two truncation procedures are investigated, one of which was derived before. In the latter, the mean-field solution of the many-body problem is considered as the starting point of the renormalization group flow. We compare the performance and the required numerical resources for solving the coupled flow equations for all the approximate schemes by applying them to the problem of the quantum anharmonic oscillator. In a functional integral representation, this model has a formal similarity to the quantum many-body problem. The perspectives for applying the derived two-particle irreducible fRG approaches to zero- and one-dimensional systems of correlated fermions are discussed.
Abstract The recently introduced single-boson exchange (SBE) decomposition of the four-point vertex of interacting fermionic many-body systems is a conceptually and computationally appealing parametrization of the vertex. It relies on the notion of reducibility of vertex diagrams with respect to the bare interaction U, instead of a classification based on two-particle reducibility within the widely used parquet decomposition. Here, we re-derive the SBE decomposition in a generalized framework (suitable for extensions to, e.g., inhomogeneous systems or real-frequency treatments) following from the parquet equations. We then derive multiloop functional renormalization group (mfRG) flow equations for the ingredients of this SBE decomposition, both in the parquet approximation, where the fully two-particle irreducible vertex is treated as an input, and in the more restrictive SBE approximation, where this role is taken by the fully U-irreducible vertex. Moreover, we give mfRG flow equations for the popular parametrization of the vertex in terms of asymptotic classes of the two-particle reducible vertices. Since the parquet and SBE decompositions are closely related, their mfRG flow equations are very similar in structure. Graphic abstract