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Physical Review A

Exact Renormalization in the Statistical Mechanics of Fluids

Melville S. Green

Published Oct 1, 1973• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Wegner's paradigm for constructing renormalization groups in statistical mechanics is applied to fluids. The coordinates of the fraction ($1\ensuremath{-}y$) of the molecules are integrated over and a system of interactions describing the remaining fraction $y$ is constructed with the aid of the McMillan-Mayer solution theory. Renormalized Ursell functions are defined in terms of which the group operations are shown to be linear. The group operations commute with a scaling operation and it is found that a series of renormalization groups depending on a parameter $x$ can be constructed by combining the operation of integrating over coordinates with the scaling operation. By comparing the renormalized cluster functions with the form of the critical cluster functions given by scaling it is shown that a fixed point of one of the series of groups corresponds to the critical point. The parameter $x$ turns out to be the scaling exponent for the chemical potential. The question of the universality of critical phenomena is expressed as the question of the discreteness or continuity of the spectrum of values of the parameter $x$ for which the linear fixed-point equations have a nontrivial solution. It is suggested that this question can be answered definitively only when a precise formulation is made of the function space in which the sequence of renormalized Ursell functions must lie.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.8.1998

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Wegner's paradigm for constructing renormalization groups in statistical mechanics is applied to fluids. The coordinates of the fraction (1\ensuremath−y1\ensuremath{-}y1\ensuremath−y) of the molecules are integrated over and a system of interactions describing the remaining fraction yyy is constructed with the aid of the McMillan-Mayer solution theory. Renormalized Ursell functions are defined in terms of which the group operations are shown to be linear. The group operations commute with a scaling operation and it is found that a series of renormalization groups depending on a parameter xxx can be constructed by combining the operation of integrating over coordinates with the scaling operation. By comparing the renormalized cluster functions with the form of the critical cluster functions given by scaling it is shown that a fixed point of one of the series of groups corresponds to the critical point. The parameter xxx turns out to be the scaling exponent for the chemical potential. The question of the universality of critical phenomena is expressed as the question of the discreteness or continuity of the spectrum of values of the parameter xxx for which the linear fixed-point equations have a nontrivial solution. It is suggested that this question can be answered definitively only when a precise formulation is made of the function space in which the sequence of renormalized Ursell functions must lie.
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].
As discussed in the previous chapter, the phenomenological theory of critical phenomena finds a sound basis in the logical sequence of universality, scaling, relevant and irrelevant variables. The difficult problem of a large number of degrees of freedom strongly correlated within the coherence distance, which diverges at criticality, is thereby, in principle, reduced to the determination of the homogeneous form of the relevant response functions and of the evaluation of a few critical indices related to the relevant parameters, whereas the details specifying each system do not matter. In order to give a microscopic foundation to universality and to the scaling theory, an exact transformation is needed, which changes into a scaling transformation asymptotically near the critical point. This is the renormalization group (RG) approach, recently presented in a huge number of reviewpapers and books.Historically, the first comprehensive overview was given by the sixth volume of the series edited by Domb and Green (1976) and by the classic books by Patashinskij and Pokrovskij (1979) and by Ma (1976). Along with scaling theory, the field-theoretic renormalization group (RG) approach (Gell- Mann and Low (1954); Bogoliubov and Shirkov (1959); Bonch-Bruevich and Tyablikov (1962)) was introduced in critical phenomena (Di Castro and Jona-Lasinio (1969)) by showing how the RG equations generalize the universality relations in the sense that they relate one model system to another by varying the coupling and suitably rescaling the other variables and the correlation functions. At the same time a detailed analysis of the pertubative diagrammatic structure of the correlation functions together with the use of Ward identities yielded a renormalized theory (Migdal (1969); Polyakov (1968, 1969)). By iterating the RG transformation the coupling disappears from the equations near to the critical point, the homogeneous form of the static order-parameter correlation function is obtained and a microscopic definition of the critical indices is given. The scaling picture then acquires a theoretical basis. Wilson (Wilson (1971a, b); Wilson and Kogut (1974)) gave a great contribution to the understanding of the physics underlying the RG procedure and to the explicit calculation of the critical indices. He proposed a simple mathematical realization of the other very physical idea of universality due to Kadanoff of grouping together degrees of freedom on the scale s associated with larger and larger cells.
The renormalization-group (RG) method discussed in this chapter has assumed a pivotal role in the modern theory of critical phenomena. It attempts to relate the partition function of a given system to that of a “similar system” with decreased degrees of freedom through a process referred to as renormalization. Exactly how these degrees of freedom are removed from the system, what we mean by a “similar” system, and how successive systems are coupled to one another are essentially the questions we take up in the introductory treatment given in this chapter. The RG method is a topic with large scope and found widely disseminated in an extensive physics literature on the topic; however, it is seldom found in engineering journals. Our purpose here is to try and make sense of some basic ideas with the RG approach so that it is more accessible to this wider community. For this we often rely upon some prior exposes of the subject in more specialized settings [1, 2, 3, 5]. In its complete sense, the RG method has only been made to work, at least analytically, for a few simple statistical-mechanical models. But aside from these numerical results, many important and quite general insights about critical phenomena can be developed from studying this approach to the problem, especially the central role played by length scale as a factor in describing the phenomenology. These ideas have significantly enhanced our understanding of ideas like scale invariance, universality classes, relevant scaling fields (as opposed to irrelevant ones), Hamiltonian renormalization, and so on; these and related concepts lie at the center of modern discourse on the subject. The essential concepts of the approach can be well illustrated using the Ising system since, with this model, lattice spins are fixed in space, which makes the analytical work quite transparent. This approach, called real space renormalization, is the RG method studied in this chapter.
The basic concepts and formulation of the renormalization group are explained beginning at an elementary level. Discussion is in the framework of classical statistical mechanics with emphasis on applications to the theory of critical phenomena. The details are worked out in the large n limit for 2 < d < 4, where n is the number of components of the fluctuating field of interest and d is the dimension of the thermodynamical system. In the large n limit, the infinite sum of ``tree graphs'' offers an exact and analytically tractable description of the renormalization group. It illustrates many concepts including the fixed point, the critical surface in the space of coupling parameters, and critical exponents. Most important, it illustrates the origin and the limitation of the scaling hypothesis. The critical behavior of various correlation functions and the free energy is examined. Attention is paid to terms often ignored in qualitative scaling arguments. We have attempted to make this paper self-contained and of pedagogical value to a wide audience.
Abstract Mean-field theory is usually taken as a first step toward understanding critical phenomena, providing an overview that reveals qualitative behaviour of physical quantities. However, it is necessary to proceed beyond the mean-field theory to better understand the situation, both qualitatively and quantitatively, when fluctuations play vital roles leading to exponents that cannot be explained by dimensional analysis, thus introducing anomalous dimensions. The present chapter explains the basic concepts of the renormalization group and scaling theory, which allow us to analyze critical phenomena with fluctuations systematically taken into account. The essential step in a renormalization group calculation consists of establishing recursion relations between the parameters defining the Hamiltonian of the system. These recursion or renormalization group equations define a flow with well-defined fixed points. Details other than the values of the relevant operators have no influence on the critical exponents and this represents universality.
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.