I consider a connected self-avoiding polymer network made of identical long chains, with fixed topology. Using renormalization theory and conformal invariance, I conjecture in 2D, and give in $d=4\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\epsilon}$, to order $O(\ensuremath{\epsilon})$, the exact value of its critical exponent $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ as a function of the topological invariants. In 2D, the exact result fits with recent numerical data for three- and four-leg stars by Lipson et al.
For Anderson localization models, there exists an exact real-space renormalization procedure at fixed energy which preserves the Green's functions of the remaining sites [H. Aoki, J. Phys. C 13, 3369 (1980)]. Using this procedure for the Anderson tight-binding model in dimensions
d=2,3, we study numerically the statistical properties of the renormalized on-site energies
ϵ and of the renormalized hoppings
V as a function of the linear size
L. We find that the renormalized on-site energies
ϵ remain finite in the localized phase in
d=2,3 and at criticality
(d=3), with a finite density at
ϵ=0 and a power-law decay
1/ϵ2 at large
∣ϵ∣. For the renormalized hoppings in the localized phase, we find: $\text{ln}\text{ }{V}_{L}\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}\frac{L}{{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{loc}}+{L}^{\ensuremath{\omega}}u$, where ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{loc}$ is the localization length and
u a random variable of order one. The exponent $\ensuremath{\omega}$ is the droplet exponent characterizing the strong disorder phase of the directed polymer in a random medium of dimension $1+(d\ensuremath{-}1)$, with $\ensuremath{\omega}(d=2)=1/3$ and $\ensuremath{\omega}(d=3)\ensuremath{\simeq}0.24$. At criticality
(d=3), the statistics of renormalized hoppings
V is multifractal, in direct correspondence with the multifractality of individual eigenstates and of two-point transmissions. In particular, we measure ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{typ}\ensuremath{\simeq}1$ for the exponent governing the typical decay $\overline{\text{ln}\text{ }{V}_{L}}\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{typ}\text{ }\text{ln}\text{ }L$, in agreement with previous numerical measures of ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{typ}=d+{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{typ}\ensuremath{\simeq}4$ for the singularity spectrum $f(\ensuremath{\alpha})$ of individual eigenfunctions. We also present numerical results concerning critical surface properties.
PART I: DISORDER The effect of quenched impurities on systems which undergo first-order phase transitions is studied within the framework of the q-state Potts model. For large q a mapping to the random field Ising model is introduced which provides a simple physical explanation of the absence of any latent heat in two dimensions, and suggests that in higher dimensions such systems should exhibit a tricritical point with a correlation length exponent related to the exponents of the random field model by \nu = \nu_RF/(2-\alpha_RF-\beta_RF). A phase diagram unifying pure, percolative and non-trivial random behaviour is proposed. In two dimensions we analyze the model using finite-size scaling and conformal invariance, and find a continuous transition with a magnetic exponent \beta/\nu which varies continuously with q, and a weakly varying correlation length exponent \nu ~ 1. For q>4 the first-order transitions of the pure model are softened due to the impurities, and the resulting universality class is different from that of the pure Ising model. We find strong evidence for multiscaling of the correlation functions, as expected for such random systems. PART II: FRUSTRATION Exact results for conformational statistics of compact polymers are derived from the two-flavour fully packed loop model on the square lattice. This loop model exhibits a two-dimensional manifold of critical fixed points each one characterised by an infinite set of geometrical scaling dimensions. We calculate these dimensions exactly by mapping the loop model to an interface model whose scaling limit is described by a Liouville field theory. The formulae for the central charge and the first few scaling dimensions are compared to numerical transfer matrix results and excellent agreement is found. Compact polymers are identified with a particular point in the phase diagram of the loop model, and the non-mean field value of the conformational exponent \gamma = 117/112 is calculated for the first time. We also present the very precise numerical estimate \kappa = 1.472801(10) for the connective constant. Interacting compact polymers are described by a line of fixed points along which \gamma and \kappa vary continuously. Our identification of compact polymers with a critical model has bearings on the cooperativity of protein folding thermodynamics. Namely, in the large chain limit, the absence of an energy gap separating the denatured states from the native (compact) ones implies that homopolymer collapse is a one-state process. We comment on the prospects of modeling specific sequence (amino acid) information through the imposition of quenched disorder.