A class of renormalization groups characterized as the general Gaussian renormalization group is defined. It includes the sharp cutoff renormalization group of Wilson, the linear renormalization group of Bell and Wilson, and the incomplete‐integration renormalization group of Wilson. The renormalization group approach to critical phenomena and the expansion around four dimensions is reviewed. The fixed point of the general Gaussian renormalization group is determined to order ε2, where ε=4−d (d is the dimensionality of the system), and the critical exponents are determined to the same order. The main conclusion is that the exponents do not depend on the cutoff functions of the renormalization group.
A class of renormalization groups characterized as the general Gaussian renormalization group is defined. It includes the sharp cutoff renormalization group of Wilson, the linear renormalization group of Bell and Wilson, and the incomplete‐integration renormalization group of Wilson. The renormalization group approach to critical phenomena and the expansion around four dimensions is reviewed. The fixed point of the general Gaussian renormalization group is determined to order ε2, where ε=4−d (d is the dimensionality of the system), and the critical exponents are determined to the same order. The main conclusion is that the exponents do not depend on the cutoff functions of the renormalization group.
Abstract Chapter 5 first recalls the importance of the concept of scale decoupling in physics. It then emphasizes that quantum field theory and the theory of critical phenomena have provided two examples where this concepts fails. To deal with such a situation, a new tool has been invented: the renormalization group. In the framework of effective quantum field theory, a perturbative renormalization group has been formulated. Its implementation has led to the discovery of fixed points as zeros of beta functions, and calculations of critical exponents of a class of macroscopic phase transitions in the form of Wilson–Fisher epsilon or fixed dimension expansions. These expansions being divergent, they could summed by methods based on the Borel transformation and the determination of the large order behaviour of perturbation theory.
Abstract In Chapter 14, the singular behavior of ferromagnetic systems with O(N) symmetry and short-range interactions, near a second order phase transition has been determined in the mean-field approximation, which is also a quasi-Gaussian approximation. The mean-field approximation predicts a set of universal properties, properties independent of the detailed structure of the microscopic Hamiltonian, the dimension of space, and, to a large extent, of the symmetry of systems. However, the leading corrections to the mean-field approximation, in dimensions smaller than or equal to four, diverge at the critical temperature, and the universal predictions of the mean-field approximation cannot be correct. Such a problem originates from the non-decoupling of scales and leads to the question of possible universality. In Chapter 9, the question has been answered in four dimensions using renormalization theory, and related renormalization group (RG) equations. Moreover, below four dimensions, in an expansion around the mean-field, the most singular terms near criticality can be also formally recovered from a continuum, low-mass φ4 field theory. More generally, following Wilson, to understand universality beyond the mean-field approximation, it is necessary to build a general renormalization group in the form of flow equations for effective Hamiltonians and to find fixed points of the flow equations. Near four dimensions, the flow equations can be approximated by the renormalization group of quantum field theory (QFT), and the fixed points and critical behaviours derived within the framework of the Wilson-Fisher ϵ expansion.
Abstract Chapter 6 describes how the perturbative renormalization group (RG) of quantum field theory has made it possible to derive universal properties of continuous macroscopic phase transitions. The RG initially emerged as a consequence of the necessity to cancel infinities that appear in the perturbative expansion (the renormalization procedure) and the possibility of defining the parameters of the renormalized theory at different momentum scales. Although the field theory RG is now understood to be an asymptotic form, it has made it possible to confirm the Wilson–Fisher fixed point and led to an understanding of universality for a large class of critical phenomena. In the framework of dimensional continuation, zeros of RG beta functions, which correspond to Wilson–Fisher’s fixed points, have made it possible to recover Wilson–Fisher’s epsilon expansion, proving scaling relations and calculating critical exponents. Series summation methods have then been used to generate precise values of exponents.
The large distance behaviour, near the critical temperature, of continuous phase transitions with short range interactions can be reproduced by an effective local field theory. Within this framework, the universal properties of the large distance can be determined by finding fixed points of general, functional renormalization group (RG) equations (Wilson, Wegner). For dimension D > 4, the large scale behavior is governed by the Gaussian fixed point (related to mean field theory), while for D < 4 the Gaussian fixed point is unstable. Near D = 4, the RG equations can be solved in the form of an ǫ = 4 − D expansion, a new stable fixed point is found and this leads to the famous Wilson-Fisher expansion for critical exponents and other universal quantities. Moreover, one realizes that, in this framework, the effective field theory can be reduced to a renormalizable field theory and, at leading order in the critical domain, the much simpler quantum field theory renormalization group can be used. A number of physicists, including the Saclay group (Brezin, Le Guillou, Zinn-Justin) have developed sophisticated field theory techniques, to prove general scaling laws and to calculate exponents to higher orders [1].
Critical points of higher order can exist in complex magnetic and fluid systems. By definition, at a critical point of order O, O phases become identical simultaneously. Here the Wilson renormalization-group method is generalized from ordinary critical points (O=2) and Gaussian tricritical points (O=3) to critical points of arbitrary order O. An expansion scheme in ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{\mathcal{O}}\ensuremath{\equiv}\frac{2\mathcal{O}}{(\mathcal{O}\ensuremath{-}1)\ensuremath{-}d}$ is proposed. The nontrivial fixed points and the critical exponents for O=3,4 are calculated to order ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{\mathcal{O}}$. We present the relevant scaling fields and densities for O=3, and, in an appendix, justify the validity of the approximate recursion relation to order ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{\mathcal{O}}$.