One-dimensional metals have a particular symmetry associated with the discrete structure of the Fermi surface: separate charge conservation in low-energy-scattering processes for particles near the left and right Fermi points, respectively. The field-theoretical renormalization group allows for an efficient exploitation of the Ward identities following from this symmetry. As a first application we prove that the \ensuremath{\beta} function of the Luttinger model vanishes identically. The same symmetry ensures the finiteness of the compressibility, thus making possible the existence of stable metallic phases with anomalous dimensions in d=1.
One-dimensional metals have a particular symmetry associated with the discrete structure of the Fermi surface: separate charge conservation in low-energy-scattering processes for particles near the left and right Fermi points, respectively. The field-theoretical renormalization group allows for an efficient exploitation of the Ward identities following from this symmetry. As a first application we prove that the \ensuremath{\beta} function of the Luttinger model vanishes identically. The same symmetry ensures the finiteness of the compressibility, thus making possible the existence of stable metallic phases with anomalous dimensions in d=1.
The low-energy properties of interacting Fermi systems are highly constrained by conservation laws. They generally simplify the structure of the underlying renormalization group by reducing the number of independent renormalization constants. In one dimension, all properties of normal metallic fixed points are uniquely determined by separate charge and spin conservation for states near the left and right Fermi points, respectively. We construct the general Luttinger-liquid theory of one-dimensional (1D) metals directly from these conservation laws. Luttinger-liquid parameters emerge naturally from the velocities associated with the conserved currents at the Luttinger-liquid fixed point. Instead of bosonization, one may thus use techniques familiar from Fermi-liquid theory, i.e., Feynman diagrams, equations of motion, and Ward identities. The choice of a technique comprising both Fermi- and Luttinger-liquid theory makes the similarities and differences of both theories particularly transparent, and sets the stage for constructing non-Fermi-liquid metallic fixed points in d>1. Several generic properties and asymptotic conservation laws of 2D non-Fermi-liquid metals are discussed.
We consider a system of two-dimensional interacting fermions with a flat Fermi surface. The apparent conflict between Luttinger and non-Luttinger liquid behaviors found through different approximations is resolved by showing the existence of a line of nontrivial fixed points, for the renormalization group (RG) flow, corresponding to Luttinger liquid behavior; the presence of marginally relevant operators can cause flow away from the fixed point. The analysis is nonperturbative and based on the implementation, at each RG iteration, of Ward identities obtained from local phase transformations depending on the Fermi surface side, implying the partial vanishing of the beta function.
For pure fermionic systems, and in the absence of symmetry breaking (e.g. magnetism, superconductivity, …), two types of metallic phases are well established: (i) the “normal” Fermi liquid phase in d = 3 presented in Chapters 12 and 19 via the response and the Green functions techniques; and (ii) the “anomalous” Luttinger liquid phase in d = 1 originally formulated with the bosonization technique by which the fermionic operators are represented in terms of “bosonic” density operators (Luther and Peschel (1974); Haldane (1981)) with the exact solution (Mattis and Lieb (1965)) of the Tomonaga–Luttinger model (Tomonaga (1950); Luttinger (1963)) discussed inmany reviews and books (see for instance the book by Giamarchi (2004)). Here, to stress similarities and differences between the Fermi liquid and the Luttinger liquid, we will follow the alternative route of response and Green functions techniques (Dzyaloshinskii and Larkin (1973), Di Castro and Metzner (1991), Metzner et al. (1998)) and add a few comments on the renormalization group approach (Metzner and Di Castro (1993)). As we have seen in Chapters 12 and 19, the Fermi liquid is described asymptotically by the free low-lying single-particle excitations, i.e., the quasiparticles with a zero-kelvin discontinuous occupation number in momentum space n k (see Eq. (18.54)) at a well defined Fermi surface (k = k F ): where here k F> and k F< indicate the limit k → k F from above and below. This discontinuity still marks the Fermi surface in the interacting system. The finite reduction of the single-particle spectral weight z kF with respect to the Fermi gas (z kF = 1) is given by the finite (i.e. non-critical) “wavefunction renormalization” (see Eq. (18.94)). The presence of the discontinuity at the Fermi surface, together with the Pauli principle, compel the inverse quasiparticle lifetime to be τ −1 ≈ max( T 2 , ϵ 2 ), where _ is the deviation of the energy of the quasiparticle from the Fermi energy. The energy uncertainty ħτ −1 due to the finite lifetime of a quasiparticle near the Fermi surface is small compared to its energy ϵ , and the quasiparticle concept is well defined. All the momentum transferring scattering processes become asymptotically ineffective, as derived phenomenologically in Chapter 12 and confirmed microscopically in Chapter 19.
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.
We review the progress in the theory of one-dimensional (ID) Fermi liquids which has occurred over the past decade. The usual Fermi liquid theory, based on a quasi-particle picture, breaks down in one dimension because of the Peierls divergence in the particle-hole bubble, producing anomalous dimensions of operators, and because of charge-spin separation. Both are related to the importance of scattering processes transferring finite momentum. A description of the low-energy properties of gapless 1D quantum systems can be based on the exactly solvable Luttinger model which incorporates these features, and whose correlation functions can be calculated. Special properties of the eigenvalue spectrum, parameterized by one renormalized velocity and one effective coupling constant per degree of freedom, fully describe the physics of this model. Other gapless 1D models share these properties in a low-energy subspace. The concept of a "Luttinger liquid" implies that their low-energy properties are described by an effective Luttinger model, and constitutes the universality class of these quantum systems. Once the mapping on the Luttinger model is achieved, one has an asymptotically exact solution of the 1D many-body problem. Lattice models identified as Luttinger liquids include the 1D Hubbard model off half-filling, and variants such as the t-J- or the extended Hubbard model. In addition, 1D electron-phonon systems or metals with impurities can be Luttinger liquids, as well as the edge states in the quantum Hall effect.
In the present work, we implement an explicit two-loop renormalization of a two-dimensional flat Fermi surface (FS) in the framework of a field theoretical renormalization group approach (RG). In our scheme, we derive the RG equations for both the coupling functions and Fermi energy. In this way, we are able to probe the existence of spin-charge separation by showing that the low-energy sector of the system is in fact a non-Fermi liquid. In addition, associating the true interacting FS to the infrared stable (IR) fixed point of the Fermi energy, we demonstrate here that it either acquires a small curvature and behaves as a "Luttinger liquid" or it suffers a truncation in k-space depicting an insulating spin liquid.