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arXiv:2411.12934 · Physical Review Letters

Parisi-Sourlas Supertranslation and Scale Invariance without Conformal Symmetry

Yu Nakayama

Published Apr 4, 2025• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Inspired by the possibility of emergent supersymmetry in critical random systems, we study a field theory model with a quartic potential of one superfield, possessing the Parisi-Sourlas supertranslation symmetry. Within perturbative ε expansion, we find nine nontrivial scale-invariant renormalization group fixed points, but only one of them is conformal. We, however, believe scale invariance without conformal invariance cannot occur without a sophisticated mechanism because it predicts the existence of a nonconserved but nonrenormalized vector operator called virial current, whose existence must be nongeneric. We show that the virial current in this model is related to the supercurrent by supertranslation. The supertranslation Ward-Takahashi identity circumvents the genericity argument, explaining its nonrenormalization property.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.134.131602

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Inspired by the possibility of emergent supersymmetry in critical random systems, we study a field theory model with a quartic potential of one superfield, possessing the Parisi-Sourlas supertranslation symmetry. Within perturbative ε expansion, we find nine nontrivial scale-invariant renormalization group fixed points, but only one of them is conformal. We, however, believe scale invariance without conformal invariance cannot occur without a sophisticated mechanism because it predicts the existence of a nonconserved but nonrenormalized vector operator called virial current, whose existence must be nongeneric. We show that the virial current in this model is related to the supercurrent by supertranslation. The supertranslation Ward-Takahashi identity circumvents the genericity argument, explaining its nonrenormalization property.
We apply the nonperturbative functional renormalization group (NP-FRG) in the superfield formalism that we have developed in the preceding paper to study long-standing issues concerning the critical behavior of the random field Ising model. Through the introduction of an appropriate regulator and a supersymmetry-compatible nonperturbative approximation, we are able to follow the supersymmetry, more specifically, the superrotational invariance first unveiled by Parisi and Sourlas [Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 744 (1979)] and its spontaneous breaking along the RG flow. Breaking occurs below a critical dimension ${d}_{\text{DR}}\ensuremath{\simeq}5.1$, and the supersymmetry-broken fixed point that controls the critical behavior then leads to a breakdown of the ``dimensional-reduction'' property. We solve the NP-FRG flow equations numerically and determine the critical exponents as a function of dimension down to $d\ensuremath{\lesssim}3$, with a good agreement in d=3d=3d=3 and 4 with the existing numerical estimates.
Abstract How can a renormalization group fixed point be scale invariant without being conformal? Polchinski (1988) showed that this may happen if the theory contains a virial current — a non-conserved vector operator of dimension exactly (d − 1), whose divergence expresses the trace of the stress tensor. We point out that this scenario can be probed via lattice Monte Carlo simulations, using the critical 3d Ising model as an example. Our results put a lower bound Δ V > 5.0 on the scaling dimension of the lowest virial current candidate V, well above 2 expected for the true virial current. This implies that the critical 3d Ising model has no virial current, providing a structural explanation for the conformal invariance of the model.
The behavior of many critical phenomena at large distances is expected to be invariant under the full conformal group, rather than only isometries and scale transformations. When studying critical phenomena, approximations are often required, and the framework of the nonperturbative, or functional, renormalization group is no exception. The derivative expansion is one of the most popular approximation schemes within this framework, due to its great performance on multiple systems, as evidenced in the past few decades. Nevertheless, it has the downside of breaking conformal symmetry at a finite order. This breaking is not observed at the leading order of the expansion, denoted the local potential approximation, and it only appears once one considers, at least, the next-to-leading order of the derivative expansion [O(∂^{2})] when including composite operators. In this work, we study the constraints arising from conformal symmetry for the O(N) models using the derivative expansion at order O(∂^{2}). We explore various values of N and minimize the breaking of conformal symmetry to fix the nonphysical parameters of the approximation procedure. We compare our prediction for the critical exponents with those coming from a more usual procedure, known as the principle of minimal sensitivity.
We reformulate the nonperturbative functional renormalization group for the random field Ising model in a superfield formalism, extending the supersymmetric description of the critical behavior of the system first proposed by Parisi and Sourlas [Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 744 (1979)]. We show that the two crucial ingredients for this extension are the introduction of a weighting factor, which accounts for ground-state dominance when multiple metastable states are present, and of multiple copies of the original system, which allows one to access the full functional dependence of the cumulants of the renormalized disorder and to describe rare events. We then derive exact renormalization group equations for the flow of the renormalized cumulants associated with the effective average action.
We revisit critical phenomena in isotropic ferromagnets with strong dipolar interactions. The corresponding renormalization group fixed point, dipolar fixed point, was first studied in 1973 by Aharony and Fisher [Phys. Rev. Lett. 30, 559 (1973]. It is distinct from the Heisenberg fixed point, although the critical exponents are close. On the theoretical side, we discuss scale invariance without conformal invariance realized by this fixed point. We elucidate the nonrenormalization of the virial current due to a shift symmetry, and show that the same mechanism is at work in all other known local fixed points which are scale but not conformal invariant. On the phenomenological side, we discuss the relative strength of dipolar and short-range interactions. In some materials, like the europium compounds, dipolar interactions are strong, and the critical behavior is dipolar. In others, like Fe or Ni, dipolar interactions are weaker, and the Heisenberg critical behavior in a range of temperatures is followed by the dipolar behavior closer to the critical point. Some of these effects have been seen experimentally.
The critical behavior of three-state statistical models invariant under the full symmetry group S 3 and its dependence on space dimension have been a matter of interest and debate. In particular, the phase transition of the 3-state Potts model in three dimensions is believed to be of the first order, without a definitive proof of absence of scale invariance in three-dimensional field theory with S 3 symmetry. This scale invariance should appear as a non-trivial fixed point of the renormalization group, which has not been found. Our new search, with the non-perturbative renormalization group, finds such a fixed point, as a bifurcation from the trivial fixed point at the critical space dimension d = 10 / 3 , which extends continuously to d = 3 . It does not correspond to a second-order phase transition of the 3-state Potts model , but is interesting in its own right. In particular, it shows how the ε -expansion can fail.