Mean-Field Theory for Coulombic Criticality in General Dimensions

Yan Levin, Xiaojun Li, Michael Ellis Fisher

Y. Kakehashi, Peter Fulde

A theory of the single-particle excitation spectrum is presented on the basis of the projection operator method combined with the many-body coherent-potential approximation (CPA). The theory describes the dynamics of the excitations by means of an energy-dependent Liouville operator accompanied by a coherent potential which is determined by the self-consistent CPA condition. It is shown that the present theory is essentially equivalent to the dynamical CPA and the dynamical mean-field theory. The Hubbard III approximation and the modified perturbation theory are rederived from the theory. A renormalized perturbation scheme for the Green function is developed on the basis of a general formula for the memory function. It interpolates between the weak- and strong-Coulomb interaction limits, and yields the metal-insulator transition for half-filled bands. Numerical calculations have been performed for the Gutzwiller-Hubbard model on a hypercubic lattice in infinite dimensions. The results show that the theory describes quantitatively the quasiparticle weight vs Coulomb interaction curve, yielding a reasonable critical Coulomb interaction for the metal-insulator transition. It produces the overall features of the excitation spectra and the momentum distributions for various Coulomb interaction strengths.

Roberto da Silva, Heitor C. M. Fernandes, Eliseu Venites Filho +2 more

Paul M. Chaikin, T. C. Lubensky

Mean-field theory, presented in the preceding chapter, correctly describes the qualitative features of most phase transitions and, in some cases, the quantitative features. Since mean-field theory replaces the actual configurations of the local variables (e.g. spins) by their average value, it neglects the effects of fluctuations about this mean. These fluctuations may or may not be important. The more spins that interact with a particular test spin, the more the test spin sees an effective average or mean field. If the test spin interacts with two neighbors, the averaging is minimal and the fluctuations are large and important. The number of spins producing the effective field increases with the range of the interaction and with the dimension. Thus we will find that mean-field theory is a good approximation in high dimensions but fails to provide a quantitatively correct description of second-order critical points in low dimensions. This chapter will be devoted to the study of second-order phase transitions when mean-field theory is not a good approximation. We will begin by considering fluctuations of the order parameter about its spatially uniform mean-field value. We will find that for spatial dimensions below an upper critical dimension d c (typically d c = 4), fluctuations always become important and invalidate mean-field theory for temperatures sufficiently close to T c . This will motivate a generalization of Landau theory that incorporates spatial fluctuations about a mean-field free energy minimum.

M. Fannes, Andrzej Kossakowski, André F. Verbeure

Jean Zinn‐Justin

Abstract In Chapter 14, the singular behavior of ferromagnetic systems with O(N) symmetry and short-range interactions, near a second order phase transition has been determined in the mean-field approximation, which is also a quasi-Gaussian approximation. The mean-field approximation predicts a set of universal properties, properties independent of the detailed structure of the microscopic Hamiltonian, the dimension of space, and, to a large extent, of the symmetry of systems. However, the leading corrections to the mean-field approximation, in dimensions smaller than or equal to four, diverge at the critical temperature, and the universal predictions of the mean-field approximation cannot be correct. Such a problem originates from the non-decoupling of scales and leads to the question of possible universality. In Chapter 9, the question has been answered in four dimensions using renormalization theory, and related renormalization group (RG) equations. Moreover, below four dimensions, in an expansion around the mean-field, the most singular terms near criticality can be also formally recovered from a continuum, low-mass φ4 field theory. More generally, following Wilson, to understand universality beyond the mean-field approximation, it is necessary to build a general renormalization group in the form of flow equations for effective Hamiltonians and to find fixed points of the flow equations. Near four dimensions, the flow equations can be approximated by the renormalization group of quantum field theory (QFT), and the fixed points and critical behaviours derived within the framework of the Wilson-Fisher ϵ expansion.