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American Journal of Physics

Time-dependent perturbation theory in quantum mechanics and the renormalization group

Jayanta K. Bhattacharjee, Deb Shankar Ray

Published May 23, 2016• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Time-dependent perturbation theory in quantum mechanics is divergent at long times when the perturbation induces a resonance between two eigenstates of the unperturbed Hamiltonian. Divergences in perturbation theory are also common in quantum field theory and in critical phenomena. The renormalization group (RG) was designed to deal with these divergences. In the last two decades, this procedure has been extended to dynamical systems where the perturbation theory diverges in the long-time limit. In this article, we first review the connection between RG in the context of field theory and RG in the context of dynamical systems. We then show that the long-time divergence in the resonant situation in the time-dependent perturbation theory in quantum mechanics can be removed by using a RG-aided calculational scheme.

DOI
10.1119/1.4944701

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Abstract Chapter 5 first recalls the importance of the concept of scale decoupling in physics. It then emphasizes that quantum field theory and the theory of critical phenomena have provided two examples where this concepts fails. To deal with such a situation, a new tool has been invented: the renormalization group. In the framework of effective quantum field theory, a perturbative renormalization group has been formulated. Its implementation has led to the discovery of fixed points as zeros of beta functions, and calculations of critical exponents of a class of macroscopic phase transitions in the form of Wilson–Fisher epsilon or fixed dimension expansions. These expansions being divergent, they could summed by methods based on the Borel transformation and the determination of the large order behaviour of perturbation theory.
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The standard perturbation theory for time-dependent problems in quantum mechanics is reconsidered through renormalization-group methods. This approach justifies a posteriori the theory of quantum resonance given by the multiple-scale analysis of the perturbation series applied to the coupled equations of wave-function amplitudes. The resonance equations for the leading-order amplitude probabilties are then obtained up to second order and a general method for the algorithmic computation of higher-order terms of the perturbation series is given. The three-level model in a monochromatic wave with two resonant states is discussed in the light of the present results.
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.
In this central and essential chapter, we develop the dynamic renormalization group approach to time-dependent critical phenomena. Again, we base our exposition on the simple O ( n )-symmetric relaxational models A and B; the generalization to other dynamical systems is straightforward. We begin with an analysis of the infrared and ultraviolet singularities appearing in the dynamic perturbation expansion. Although we are ultimately interested in the infrared critical region, we first take care of the ultraviolet divergences. Below and at the critical dimension d c = 4, only a finite set of Feynman diagrams carries ultraviolet singularities, which we evaluate by means of the dimensional regularization prescription, and then eliminate via multiplicative as well as additive renormalization (the latter takes into account the fluctuation-induced shift of the critical temperature). The renormalization group equation then permits us to explore the ensuing scaling behavior of the correlation and vertex functions of the renormalized theory upon varying the arbitrary renormalization scale. Of fundamental importance is the identification of an infrared-stable renormalization group fixed point, which describes scale invariance and hence allows the derivation of the critical power laws in the infrared limit from the renormalization constants determined in the ultraviolet regime. This program is explicitly carried through for the relaxational models A and B. For model B, we derive a scaling relation connecting the dynamic exponent to the Fisher exponent η . The critical exponents ν , η , and z are computed to first non-trivial order in an ∊ expansion around the upper critical dimension d c = 4.
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