The most general form of a marginal extended perturbation in a two-dimensional system is deduced from scaling considerations. It includes as particular cases extended perturbations decaying either from a surface, a line or a point for which exact results have been previously obtained. The first-order corrections to the local exponents, which are functions of the amplitude of the defect, are deduced from a perturbation expansion of the two-point correlation functions. Assuming covariance under conformal transformation, the perturbed system is mapped onto a cylinder. Working in the Hamiltonian limit, the first-order corrections to the lowest gaps are calculated for the Ising model. The results confirm the validity of the gap-exponent relations for the perturbed system.
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].
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.
In the context of a phase transition, the critical singularity is characterized by a set of numbers, the critical exponents. It is widely believed that for transitions in systems with pair interactions on Bravais lattices (as opposed to hierarchical lattices), the critical exponents are determined solely by parameters d and n, representing the dimensionality of space and of the order parameter, respectively, and by \ensuremath{\sigma}, the interaction range. In this paper we consider a certain generalization of the Lifshitz singularity in the n-vector model in which a new parameter \ensuremath{\lambda}, describing a type of anisotropy of the interactions, is introduced. This is described by a model Hamiltonian in k space in which the leading term is of the form [${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}_{\mathit{i}=1}^{\mathit{d}}$(
ki2${)}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}/(2\ensuremath{\lambda})}$]\ensuremath{\lambda}. It should be noted that, as for the usual Lifshitz case, what would otherwise be the dominant
k2 term is supposed to have already been cancelled. For this model the parameters d, n, and \ensuremath{\sigma} are not sufficient to determine the value of the critical exponents to O(1/n), although they are sufficient for the first order in the \ensuremath{\epsilon} expansion.Calculations exact to O(1/n) show that, for a given set d, n, and \ensuremath{\sigma}, the exponents vary continuously with the parameter \ensuremath{\lambda} and include as a special case (for \ensuremath{\lambda}=1) the critical exponents for an anisotropic Lifshitz point. The critical exponents for this Lifshitz point differ markedly in value from those for the usually studied isotropic Lifshitz point, which is also a special case (for \ensuremath{\lambda}=\ensuremath{\sigma}/2) of our model. For \ensuremath{\sigma}=2, however, the two cases corresponding to \ensuremath{\lambda}=1 and \ensuremath{\sigma}/2 become degenerate. We provide another explicit example of the dependence of the critical exponents on \ensuremath{\lambda} by performing, in addition to the 1/n expansion, an expansion in \ensuremath{\sigma}-2. This helps to shed some light on the approach to the degeneracy at \ensuremath{\sigma}=2. The analysis of the Feynman integrals arising in the O(1/n) calculation provides interesting examples of the applications of hypergeometric functions; these integrals have themselves led to new results (published separately) in the theory of hypergeometric functions.
We describe the nonzero temperature
(T), low frequency $(\ensuremath{\omega})$ dynamics of the order parameter near quantum critical points in two spatial dimensions
(d), with a special focus on the regime $\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\ll}{k}_{B}T$. For the case of a ``relativistic,''
O(n)-symmetric, bosonic quantum field theory we show that, for small $\ensuremath{\epsilon}=3\ensuremath{-}d$, the dynamics is described by an effective classical model of waves with a quartic interaction. We provide analytical and numerical analyses of the classical wave model directly in
d=2. We describe the crossover from the finite frequency, ``amplitude fluctuation,'' gapped quasiparticle mode in the quantum paramagnet (or Mott insulator), to the zero frequency ``phase''
(n> 2) or ``domain wall''
(n=1) relaxation mode near the ordered state. For static properties, we show how a surprising, duality-like transformation allows an exact treatment of the strong-coupling limit for all n. For
n=2, we compute the universal T dependence of the superfluid density below the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature, and discuss implications for the high temperature superconductors. For
n=3, our computations of the dynamic structure factor relate to neutron scattering experiments on
La1.85Sr0.15CuO4, and to light scattering experiments on double layer quantum Hall systems. We expect that closely related effective classical wave models will apply also to other quantum critical points in
d=2. Although computations in appendixes do rely upon technical results on the $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$-expansion of quantum critical points obtained in earlier papers, the physical discussion in the body of the paper is self-contained, and can be read without consulting these earlier works.