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Physical review. B, Solid state

Renormalization-group treatment of the critical dynamics of superfluid helium, the isotropic antiferromagnet, and the easy-plane ferromagnet

Bertrand I. Halperin, Pierre C. Hohenberg, Eric D. Siggia

Published Feb 1, 1976• 187 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Phenomenological models with "planar-spin" and "antiferromagnetic" dynamics are introduced, and their critical behavior is analyzed using renomalization-group methods. Dynamic scaling is shown to hold for these models to all orders in $\ensuremath{\epsilon}=4\ensuremath{-}d$, and the dynamic exponents are expressed entirely in terms of static exponents, in agreement with earlier phenomenological and mode-coupling theories. The magnitudes of the diverging transport and kinetic coefficients are expressed purely in terms of static properties and of universal constants which are calculated to second order in $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$. Matching conditions are proved between the characteristic frequencies above and below ${T}_{c}$, and the corresponding universal amplitude ratios are calculated to second order in $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$. The principal applications are to liquid helium and the Heisenberg antiferromagnet RbMn${\mathrm{F}}_{3}$, where the experimental exponents and amplitudes both agree reasonably well with theory. In the case of liquid helium ("asymmetric" case with $\ensuremath{\alpha}<0$) the asymptotic critical behavior is somewhat masked by correction terms, due to the slow approach of the spectific heat to its finite value at ${T}_{\ensuremath{\lambda}}$. These correction terms are analyzed in detail, and a proposal is made for extracting the true asymptotic behavior from the data. The effects of other conserved fields such as the mass density and momentum in helium, and the energy density in the magnet, are considered, and shown to be irrelevant for the critical behavior of the order parameter.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.13.1299

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Originally, the term ‘dynamic critical phenomena’ was coined for time-dependent properties near second-order phase transitions in thermal equilibrium . The kinetics of phase transitions in magnets, at the gas–liquid transition, and at the normal- to superfluid phase transition in helium 4 were among the prominent examples investigated already in the 1960s. The dynamic scaling hypothesis , generalizing the scaling ansatz for the static correlation function and introducing an additional dynamic critical exponent, successfully described a variety of these experiments. Yet only the development of the systematic renormalization group (RG) approach for critical phenomena in the subsequent decade provided a solid conceptual foundation for phenomenological scaling theories. Supplemented with exact solutions for certain idealized model systems, and guided by invaluable input from computer simulations in addition to experimental data, the renormalization group now provides a general framework to explore not only the static and dynamic properties near a critical point, but also the large-scale and low-frequency response in stable thermodynamic phases. Scaling concepts and the renormalization group have also been successfully applied to phase transitions at zero temperature driven by quantum rather than thermal fluctuations. It is to be hoped that RG methods may help to classify the strikingly rich phenomena encountered in far-from-equilibrium systems as well. Recent advances in studies of simple reaction-diffusion systems, active to absorbing state phase transitions, driven lattice gases, and scaling properties of moving interfaces and growing surfaces, among others, appear promising in this respect.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Mar 6, 2014•0 citations
Phenomenological models with "planar-spin" and "antiferromagnetic" dynamics are introduced, and their critical behavior is analyzed using renomalization-group methods. Dynamic scaling is shown to hold for these models to all orders in \ensuremathϵ=4\ensuremath−d\ensuremath{\epsilon}=4\ensuremath{-}d\ensuremathϵ=4\ensuremath−d, and the dynamic exponents are expressed entirely in terms of static exponents, in agreement with earlier phenomenological and mode-coupling theories. The magnitudes of the diverging transport and kinetic coefficients are expressed purely in terms of static properties and of universal constants which are calculated to second order in \ensuremathϵ\ensuremath{\epsilon}\ensuremathϵ. Matching conditions are proved between the characteristic frequencies above and below Tc{T}_{c}Tc​, and the corresponding universal amplitude ratios are calculated to second order in \ensuremathϵ\ensuremath{\epsilon}\ensuremathϵ. The principal applications are to liquid helium and the Heisenberg antiferromagnet RbMnF3{\mathrm{F}}_{3}F3​, where the experimental exponents and amplitudes both agree reasonably well with theory. In the case of liquid helium ("asymmetric" case with \ensuremathα<0\ensuremath{\alpha}<0\ensuremathα<0) the asymptotic critical behavior is somewhat masked by correction terms, due to the slow approach of the spectific heat to its finite value at T\ensuremathλ{T}_{\ensuremath{\lambda}}T\ensuremathλ​. These correction terms are analyzed in detail, and a proposal is made for extracting the true asymptotic behavior from the data. The effects of other conserved fields such as the mass density and momentum in helium, and the energy density in the magnet, are considered, and shown to be irrelevant for the critical behavior of the order parameter.
We review the progress made in dynamic bulk critical behaviour in equilibrium in the last 25 years since the review of Halperin and Hohenberg. We unify the presentation of the theoretical background by restricting ourselves to the field-theoretic renormalization group method. The main results obtained in the different universality classes are presented. This contains the critical dynamics near the gas–liquid transition in pure fluids (model H), the plait point and consolute point in mixtures (model H � ), the superfluid transition in 4 He (model F) and 4 He– 3 He mixtures (model F � ), the Curie point (model J) and Neel point (model G) in Heisenberg magnets and the superconducting transition. In comparison with experimental results, it became clear that in most cases one has to consider apart from the universal asymptotic critical behaviour also the non-universal effective behaviour. Either because it turned out to be inevitable due to a small dynamical transient exponent inhibiting the system to reach the asymptotics (e.g., at the superfluid transition) or because one is interested in the region further away from the phase transition like in pure fluids and mixtures at their gas–liquid or demixing transition. The calculation of the critical dynamics is adequate in most cases only in two-loop order. We review these results and present the solution to unreasonable features found for some models. Thus, we consider model C where relaxational and diffusive dynamics are coupled and the scaling properties and the limit to a purely relaxational model (model A) have not been understood. In general for models where the order parameter couples to other conserved densities time scale ratios between the kinetic coefficients of the order parameter and the conserved densities play an important role. Their fixed-point values and the approach to the fixed point are changed considerably in two-loop order compared to their values in one-loop order. These considerations are relevant for the explanation of the dynamical critical shape functions of systems such as superfluid helium (model F) and the isotropic antiferromagnet (model G). As far as possible, the comparison of results obtained by the renormalization group theory with numerical simulations has been made.
Recursion relations correct to lowest order in $\ensuremath{\epsilon}=4\ensuremath{-}d$ are obtained for simple models representing the critical dynamics of a binary liquid, a Heisenberg antiferromagnet, superfluid helium, and related systems. The exponents for the divergences of the transport coefficients satisfy the "scaling" relations predicted by mode-mode coupling theory. The viscosity of the binary liquid is predicted to diverge as ${k}^{\ensuremath{-}\frac{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}{19}}$ near d=4d=4d=4, which is a new result.
Equipped with the field theory representation of non-linear Langevin equations, the tools of dynamic perturbation theory, and the dynamic renormalization group introduced in Chapters 4 and 5, we are now in the position to revisit models for dynamic critical behavior that entail reversible mode couplings and other conserved hydrodynamic modes. We have already encountered some of these in Section 3.3. In models C and D, respectively, a non-conserved or conserved n -component order parameter is coupled to a conserved scalar field, the energy density. Through a systematic renormalization group analysis, we may critically assess the earlier predictions from scaling theory, and discuss the stability of fixed points characterized by strong dynamic scaling, wherein the order parameter and conserved non-critical mode fluctuate with equal rates, and weak dynamic scaling regimes, where these characteristic time scales differ. Next we investigate isotropic ferromagnets (model J), with the conserved spin density subject to reversible precession in addition to diffusive relaxation. Exploiting rotational invariance, we can now firmly establish the scaling relation z = ( d + 2 − η )/2. Similar symmetry arguments yield a scaling relation for the dynamic exponents associated with the order parameter and the non-critical fields in the O ( n )-symmetric SSS model that encompasses model E for planar ferromagnets and superfluid helium 4 (for n = 2), and model G for isotropic antiferromagnets ( n = 3). There exist competing strong- and weak-scaling fixed points, with the former stable to one-loop order, and characterized by z = d /2 for all slow modes.
We discuss renormalization-group and mode-coupling theories of critical dynamics for several models. We show that to lowest order in $\ensuremath{\epsilon}={d}_{c}\ensuremath{-}d$, where for d>dcd>{d}_{c}d>dc​ conventional theory is valid, the renormalizationgroup differential equations are related by a simple transformation to those obtained from mode-coupling theory. Furthermore, the values of the dynamical fixed-point parameters essentially coincide with the critical amplitudes of the diverging transport coefficients, as determined by mode-coupling theory. In addition, we present a correct renormalization-group treatment for dynamical systems with more than one time scale, as for the binary liquid. We stress the fact that there are two distinct classes of critical dynamics, as illustrated by the results for the models studied here. We also discuss the instability of the conventional fixed point (time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau like) against mode-coupling perturbations for d<dcd<{d}_{c}d<dc​, with particular emphasis on a model for superfluid helium.
This article concludes a series of papers [Folk, Holovatch, and Moser, Phys. Rev. E 78, 041124 (2008); 78, 041125 (2008); 79, 031109 (2009)] where the tools of the field theoretical renormalization group were employed to explain and quantitatively describe different types of static and dynamic behavior in the vicinity of multicritical points. Here we give the complete two-loop calculation and analysis of the dynamic renormalization-group flow equations at the multicritical point in anisotropic antiferromagnets in an external magnetic field. We find that the time scales of the order parameters characterizing the parallel and perpendicular ordering with respect to the external field scale in the same way. This holds independent whether the Heisenberg fixed point or the biconical fixed point in statics is the stable one. The nonasymptotic analysis of the dynamic flow equations shows that due to cancellation effects the critical behavior is described, in distances from the critical point accessible to experiments, by the critical behavior qualitatively found in one-loop order. Although one may conclude from the effective dynamic exponents (taking almost their one-loop values) that weak scaling for the order parameter components is valid, the flow of the time-scale ratios is quite different, and they do not reach their asymptotic values.
Originally, the term ‘dynamic critical phenomena’ was coined for time-dependent properties near second-order phase transitions in thermal equilibrium . The kinetics of phase transitions in magnets, at the gas–liquid transition, and at the normal- to superfluid phase transition in helium 4 were among the prominent examples investigated already in the 1960s. The dynamic scaling hypothesis , generalizing the scaling ansatz for the static correlation function and introducing an additional dynamic critical exponent, successfully described a variety of these experiments. Yet only the development of the systematic renormalization group (RG) approach for critical phenomena in the subsequent decade provided a solid conceptual foundation for phenomenological scaling theories. Supplemented with exact solutions for certain idealized model systems, and guided by invaluable input from computer simulations in addition to experimental data, the renormalization group now provides a general framework to explore not only the static and dynamic properties near a critical point, but also the large-scale and low-frequency response in stable thermodynamic phases. Scaling concepts and the renormalization group have also been successfully applied to phase transitions at zero temperature driven by quantum rather than thermal fluctuations. It is to be hoped that RG methods may help to classify the strikingly rich phenomena encountered in far-from-equilibrium systems as well. Recent advances in studies of simple reaction-diffusion systems, active to absorbing state phase transitions, driven lattice gases, and scaling properties of moving interfaces and growing surfaces, among others, appear promising in this respect.