The exactly soluble Luttinger model can also be analyzed from the point of view of the renormalization group. A perturbation theory of the beta function of the model is derived. We argue that the main terms of the beta function vanish identically if the anomalous dimension is properly treated and if suitable properties of the exact solution are taken into account. Our treatment is purely perturbative and we do not discuss the problems of convergence of the formal series defining the beta function, it has recently been established, however, that the series defining it is convergent.
The stability or lack thereof of nonrelativistic fermionic systems to interactions is studied within the renormalization-group (RG) framework, in close analogy with the study of critical phenomena using ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{4}$ scalar field theory. A brief introduction to ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{4}$ theory in four dimensions and the path-integral formulation for fermions is given before turning to the problem at hand. As for the latter, the following procedure is used. First, the modes on either side of the Fermi surface within a cutoff $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ are chosen for study, in analogy with the modes near the origin in ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}^{4}$ theory, and a path integral is written to describe them. Next, an RG transformation that eliminates a part of these modes, but preserves the action of the noninteracting system, is identified. Finally the possible perturbations of this free-field fixed point are classified as relevant, irrelevant or marginal. A
d=1 warmup calculation involving a system of fermions shows how, in contrast to mean-field theory, which predicts a charge-density wave for arbitrarily weak repulsion, and superconductivity for arbitrarily weak attraction, the renormalization-group approach correctly yields a scale-invariant system (Luttinger liquid) by taking into account both instabilities. Application of the renormalization group in
d=2and3, for rotationally invariant Fermi surfaces, automatically leads to Landau's Fermi-liquid theory, which appears as a fixed point characterized by an effective mass and a Landau function
F, with the only relevant perturbations being of the superconducting (BCS) type. The functional flow equations for the BCS couplings are derived and separated into an infinite number of flows, one for each angular momentum. It is shown that similar results hold for rotationally noninvariant (but time-reversal-invariant) Fermi surfaces also, with obvious loss of rotational invariance in the parametrization of the fixed-point interactions. A study of a nested Fermi surface shows an additional relevant flow leading to charge-density-wave formation. It is pointed out that, for small $\frac{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}{{K}_{F}}$, a
N1 expansion emerges, with $N=\frac{{K}_{F}}{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$, which explains why one is able to solve the narrow-cutoff theory. The search for non-Fermi liquids in
d=2 using the RG is discussed. Bringing a variety of phenomena (Landau theory, charge-density waves, BCS instability, nesting, etc.) under the one unifying principle of the RG not only allows us to better understand and unify them, but also paves the way for generalizations and extensions. The article is pedagogical in nature and is expected to be accessible to any serious graduate student. On the other hand, its survey of the vast literature is mostly limited to the RG approach.
We give a Hamiltonian-based interpretation of microscopic Fermi liquid theory within a renormalization group framework. The Fermi liquid fixed-point Hamiltonian with its leading-order corrections is identified and we show that the mean field calculations for this model correspond to the Landau phenomenological approach. This is illustrated first of all for the Kondo and Anderson models of magnetic impurities which display Fermi liquid behaviour at low temperatures. We then show how these results can be deduced by a reorganization of perturbation theory, in close parallel to that for the renormalized φ4 field theory. The Fermi liquid results follow from the two lowest order diagrams of the renormalized perturbation expansion. The calculations for the impurity models are simpler than for the general case because the self-energy depends on frequency only. We show, however, that a similar renormalized expansion can be derived also for the case of a translationally invariant system. The parameters specifying the Fermi liquid fixed-point Hamiltonian are related to the renormalized vertices appearing in the perturbation theory. The collective zero sound modes appear in the quasiparticle-quasihole ladder sum of the renormalized perturbation expansion. The renormalized perturbation expansion can in principle be used beyond the Fermi liquid regime to higher temperatures. This approach should be particularly useful for heavy fermions and other strongly correlated electron systems, where the renormalization of the single-particle excitations are particularly large. We briefly look at the breakdown of Fermi liquid theory from a renormalized perturbation theory point of view. We show how a modified version of the approach can be used in some situations, such as the spinless Luttinger model, where Fermi liquid theory is not applicable. Other examples of systems where the Fermi liquid theory breaks down are also briefly discussed.
Divergencies appearing in perturbation expansions of interacting many-body systems can often be removed by expanding around a suitably chosen renormalized (instead of the noninteracting) Hamiltonian. We describe such a renormalized perturbation expansion for interacting Fermi systems, which treats Fermi surface shifts and superconductivity with an arbitrary gap function via additive counterterms. The expansion is formulated explicitly for the Hubbard model to second order in the interaction. Numerical solutions of the self-consistency condition determining the Fermi surface and the gap function are calculated for the two-dimensional case. For the repulsive Hubbard model close to half-filling we find a superconducting state with d-wave symmetry, as expected. For Fermi levels close to the van Hove singularity a Pomeranchuk instability leads to Fermi surfaces with a broken square lattice symmetry, whose topology can be closed or open. For the attractive Hubbard model the second-order calculation yields an s-wave superconductivity with a weakly momentum dependent gap, whose size is reduced compared to the mean-field result.
We discuss an interplay between the Fermi-liquid (FL) theory and diagrammatic perturbative approach to interacting Fermi systems. In the FL theory for Galilean-invariant systems, mass renormalization ${m}^{\ensuremath{\ast}}/m$ comes exclusively from fermions at the Fermi surface. We show that in a diagrammatic perturbation theory the same result for ${m}^{\ensuremath{\ast}}/m$ comes from fermions both at and away from the Fermi surface. The equivalence of the FL and perturbative approaches is based on a particular relation between self-energy contributions from high- and low-energy fermions. We argue that care has to be exercised in the renormalization-group approach to a FL in order not to miss the high-energy contribution to ${m}^{\ensuremath{\ast}}/m$. As particular examples, we discuss ${m}^{\ensuremath{\ast}}/m$ and the quasiparticle residue
Z for two-dimensional and three-dimensional systems with both SU(2) and
SU(N) symmetries, and with a short-range interaction. We derive an expression for the anisotropic part of the Fermi-liquid vertex in the large-
N limit of the
SU(N) case.
We implement an explicit two-loop calculation of the coupling functions and the self-energy of interacting fermions with a two-dimensional flat Fermi surface in the framework of the field theoretical renormalization group (RG) approach. Throughout the calculation both the Fermi surface and the Fermi velocity are assumed to be fixed and unaffected by interactions. We show that in two dimensions, in a weak coupling regime, there is no significant change in the RG flow compared to the well-known one-loop results available in the literature. However, if we extrapolate the flow to a moderate coupling regime there are interesting new features associated with an anisotropic suppression of the quasiparticle weight
Z along the Fermi surface, and the vanishing of the renormalized coupling functions for several choices of the external momenta.