Abstract Actual computations of fixed points and eigenvalues usually involve approximations, often crude ones, except for a very limited number of simple cases such as the one-dimensional Ising model of the previous chapter. In real- and momentum-space renormalization group theory, there are no general prescriptions to systematically improve the degree of the approximation with a modest amount of effort. There are established methods to systematically improve precision, but they usually need a large amount of numerical calculations. The scope of the present chapter is modest as we limit ourselves to basic examples, including the epsilon expansion about the Gaussian fixed-point of the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson model. Finally, the last section illustrates the extension of the renormalization group framework to study quantum phase transitions.
We saw in Chapter 3 that the hamiltonian for a System at a critical point flows under the renormalization group into a critical fixed point. Under a renormalization group transformation, the microscopic length scale is rescaled by a constant factor b , and so the coordinates of a given point, as measured in units of this length scale, transform according to r → b −1 r. This is called a scale transformation . Once the flows reach such a fixed point, the parameters of the hamiltonian no longer change, and it is said to be scale invariant . As well as being scale invariant, the fixed point hamiltonian usually possesses other spatial symmetries. For example, if the underlying model is defined on a lattice, so that its hamiltonian is invariant under lattice translations, the corresponding critical fixed point hamiltonian is generally invariant under arbitrary uniform translations. This is because terms which might be added to the hamiltonian which break the symmetry under continuous translations down to its subgroup of lattice translations are irrelevant at such a fixed point. Similarly, if the lattice model is invariant under a sufficiently large subgroup of the rotation group (for example, if the interactions in the x and y directions on a Square lattice are equal), then the fixed point hamiltonian enjoys full rotational invariance. As discussed on p.58, even if the interactions are anisotropic, rotational invariance may often be recovered by a suitable finite relative rescaling of the coordinates.
The renormalization-group recursion relations are solved for the effective Hamiltonians relative to phase transitions with four-component order parameters. For this value of n there are 22 types of Hamiltonians which can be classified into two categories according to the action of their normalizer
GN on the corresponding parameter space (
GN is the symmetry group leaving globally invariant this space). In the first case,
GN generates a finite number of isolated fixed points whose characteristics can be deduced from the detailed investigation of five Hamiltonians only.In the second category, for which
GN is a continuous group, there are, in addition to isolated fixed points, continuous manifolds of physically equivalent fixed points (the dimension of the manifolds is either one or three). In the search for a stable fixed point, the continuous manifolds can be ignored, while the isolated points are related to the five former Hamiltonians. For n=4, it is necessary to solve the recursion relations to two-loop order. The only possible stable ones among the fixed points then arise from a splitting of points which coincide, to one-loop order, with the isotropic fixed point. Extending, to two-loop order, a result recently established to the preceding order, we show that if a stable fixed point exists, it is unique. For n=4, the stable fixed point has one of three possible symmetries : di-icosahedral, hypercubic, or dicylindrical.Despite this anisotropy of the critical fluctuations, the exponents associated with any of the stable fixed points are identical to order ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{2}$ to the ``isotropic'' exponents corresponding to n=4. The cubic point is destabilized by any operator of symmetry lower than cubic. The dicylindrical one remains stable with respect to certain anisotropies of lower symmetry. We examine the available experimental data in light of the preceding theoretical results concerning the critical behavior and the thermodynamic order of the transitions. On the other hand, we establish two general symmetry conditions relative to the stable fixed points determined by the renormalization-group equations. The first one specifies group theoretically, for each value of n, the possible symmetries
Gi∗ of the stable fixed points. The second one formulates a necessary condition for the occurrence of an anisotropic stable fixed point: The normalizer
GN of the considered parameter space must fulfill the condition
GN\ensuremath{\subset}@;
BGi∗ for one, at least, of the former
Gi∗ groups. These rules are shown to be very restrictive for n=4: On the basis of symmetry the lack of a stable fixed point can be asserted for 10 Hamiltonians out of 22, without solving the fixed-point equations.
The perturbative renormalization of the Ginzburg–Landau model is reconsidered based on the Feynman diagram technique. We derive renormalization group (RG) flow equations, exactly calculating all vertices appearing in the perturbative renormalization of the ' 4 model up to the 3 order of the -expansion. In this case, the ' 2 , ' 4 , ' 6 , and ' 8 vertices appear. All these are relevant in the sense that they do not vanish at the fixed point. We have tested the expected basic properties of the RG flow, such as the semigroup property. Under repeated RG transformation Rs, appropriately represented RG flow on the critical surface converges to certain s–independent fixed point. The Fourier–transformed two–point correlation function G(k) has been considered. Although the -expansion of X(k) = 1=G(k) is well defined on the critical surface, we have revealed a fundamental inconsistency of the perturbative method with the exact rescaling of X(k), represented as an expansion in powers of k at k ! 0. We discuss also certain paradox, related to the -expansion of X(k) above the critical point. Apart from the –expansion, we have tested also a modified approach, where the ' 4 coupling constant u is the expansion parameter at a fixed spatial dimensionality d. Our tests point to some internal inconsistency of such a method.