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Journal of Physics C Solid State Physics

A smooth cut-off formulation of the hierarchical reference theory of fluids

Alberto Parola

Published Sep 20, 1986• 18 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Following the same strategy adopted in the hierarchical reference theory of fluids the author has derived a new hierarchy of differential equations for the free energy and the direct correlation functions of a classical fluid. In the critical region the equations resemble the renormalisation group in a smooth cut-off formulation and in fact the theory gives the usual epsilon =4-d expansion for the critical exponents. In this theory the universality of the critical behaviour is not manifest and it is generally lost in an approximate solution of the hierarchy. They have studied a very simple approximation in d=3 giving a non-classical value of the compressibility critical exponent and they have checked that the violation of universality is small.

DOI
10.1088/0022-3719/19/26/008

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Following the same strategy adopted in the hierarchical reference theory of fluids the author has derived a new hierarchy of differential equations for the free energy and the direct correlation functions of a classical fluid. In the critical region the equations resemble the renormalisation group in a smooth cut-off formulation and in fact the theory gives the usual epsilon =4-d expansion for the critical exponents. In this theory the universality of the critical behaviour is not manifest and it is generally lost in an approximate solution of the hierarchy. They have studied a very simple approximation in d=3 giving a non-classical value of the compressibility critical exponent and they have checked that the violation of universality is small.
The fixed points of the exact renormalisation group equations with smooth cut-off are determined in the epsilon -expansion for systems characterised by mn-component vector order-parameters. The critical behaviour of quenched random n-component spin systems is obtained by taking the limit m=O. The critical exponent is obtained to order epsilon 2 , and the other exponents to order epsilon . A derivation of Nelson's trajectory-integral expression for the free energy, appropriate for the case of smooth cut-off renormalisation group equations, is presented.
The phi4 scalar field theory in three dimensions, prototype for the study of phase transitions, is investigated by means of the hierarchical reference theory (HRT) in its smooth cutoff formulation. The critical behavior is described by scaling laws and critical exponents which compare favorably with the known values of the Ising universality class. The inverse susceptibility vanishes identically inside the coexistence curve, providing a first principle implementation of the Maxwell construction, and shows the expected discontinuity across the phase boundary, at variance with the usual sharp cutoff implementation of HRT. The correct description of first and second order phase transitions within a microscopic, nonperturbative approach is thus achieved in the smooth cutoff HRT.
In this work we present a new theoretical approach for the study of the phase diagram of interacting quantum particles: bosons, fermions or spins. Starting from the microscopic Hamiltonian of a quantum model, we first derive a set of exact differential equations for the free energy and the correlation functions describing the effects of fluctuations on the thermodynamics of the system. These equations reproduce the full renormalization group structure in the neighbourhood of a critical point keeping, at the same time, fuli information on the non universal properties of the model. A simple approximation to our formally exact equations is studied for the spin-S Heisenberg model where explicit results for critical exponents, critical temperature and coexistence curve are obtained. In three dimensions the results are in good agreement with available quantum Monte Carlo simulations and series expansions.
For pt.II see ibid., vol.11, p.375 (1978). Exact renormalisation group equations (RGE) are obtained for the d-dimensional n-vector and spin-S Heisenberg versions of Dyson's hierarchical model. In the quantum mechanical case the fixed point and neighbourhood properties of the RGE are shown to be independent of S indicating universality of critical behaviour in spin magnitude. Expansions for critical exponents, analogous to the usual epsilon =4-d expansions, are obtained and the RGE solved numerically to obtain relevant scaling indices. The n to infinity or spherical limit is also discussed and 1/n corrections to critical exponents are calculated to first order in 1/n.
A first-principles theory for the description of critical phenomena in mixtures is presented. This is a natural extension of the hierarchical reference theory of fluids, which has proven useful and accurate in the treatment of the critical region of one-component fluids. The case of a binary mixture is studied in detail. Near the critical point, the theory develops a renormalization-group structure that allows the identification of several possible critical behaviors corresponding to different fixed points. For a generic binary mixture, the most stable fixed point gives rise to the same critical exponents as are predicted by the well-known phenomenological approach, providing a microscopic mechanism for such behavior. The competition between two fixed points is identified as the mechanism leading to the strong corrections to scaling seen experimentally. Explicit expressions for the most interesting universal quantities are evaluated to O(4-d). This theory is then applied to a few simple models of mixtures in three dimensions. As a first step, the mean-field phase diagram is reproduced and the stability of this solution is determined. The physical nature of the relevant order parameter and the one-loop correction to mean-field results are also calculated within our approach.
The Polchinski version of the exact renormalisation group equations is applied to multicritical fixed points, which are present for dimensions between two and four, for scalar theories using both the local potential approximation and its extension, the derivative expansion. The results are compared with the epsilon expansion by showing that the non linear differential equations may be linearised at each multicritical point and the epsilon expansion treated as a perturbative expansion. The results for critical exponents are compared with corresponding epsilon expansion results from standard perturbation theory. The results provide a test for the validity of the local potential approximation and also the derivative expansion. An alternative truncation of the exact RG equation leads to equations which are similar to those found in the derivative expansion but which gives correct results for critical exponents to order ε and also for the field anomalous dimension to order ε 2. An exact marginal operator for the full RG equations is also constructed.