This dissertation involves the renormalization group theory and its application to two systems exhibiting renormalization symmetry. Both the real space and the field theoretic formulations of the renormalization group theory are discussed. A continuum of real space renormalization transformations is used to study the critical behavior of the two-dimensional Ising model. We find that there exists an optimal transformation that produces sharply more accurate critical properties that the others. We establish a set of conditions that characterize the optimal transformation. These conditions suggest criteria that could enable one to control a given real space renormalization approximation. Field theory renormalization is used to exploit the renormalization symmetry in the excluded volume problem. We develop a self-contained formalism that incorporates the concepts and methods of field theory renormalization directly into the language of the excluded volume problem. This formalism avoids the Lagrangian model isomorphism, thereby providing a simpler and more natural framework for underst and ing the excluded volume problem from first principles. This formalism is used to investigate the spatial correlations in a large self-repelling ring polymer. In particular, we find that the ratio of the radius of gyration of a ring polymer to that of a linear polymer having the same number of monomers is a universal quantity whose value we calculate to first order in (epsilon) (TBOND) 4 - (dimension of space). In addition, we study the mutual excluded volume characterizing a system of two chains with different lengths. The renormalization of the polymer perturbation theory through two-loop order enables us to calculate the universal value of the interpenetration function to second order in (epsilon). Our renormalization group results are in very good agreement with the results obtained from numerical and experimental studies of rings and chains in three dimensional space. We also discuss the connection between real space and field theory renormalization. We outline the basic conceptual ideas that underlie the general theory of renormalization and illustrate how each of these ideas is realized in the real space and the field theoretic formulations.
This dissertation involves the renormalization group theory and its application to two systems exhibiting renormalization symmetry. Both the real space and the field theoretic formulations of the renormalization group theory are discussed. A continuum of real space renormalization transformations is used to study the critical behavior of the two-dimensional Ising model. We find that there exists an optimal transformation that produces sharply more accurate critical properties that the others. We establish a set of conditions that characterize the optimal transformation. These conditions suggest criteria that could enable one to control a given real space renormalization approximation. Field theory renormalization is used to exploit the renormalization symmetry in the excluded volume problem. We develop a self-contained formalism that incorporates the concepts and methods of field theory renormalization directly into the language of the excluded volume problem. This formalism avoids the Lagrangian model isomorphism, thereby providing a simpler and more natural framework for underst and ing the excluded volume problem from first principles. This formalism is used to investigate the spatial correlations in a large self-repelling ring polymer. In particular, we find that the ratio of the radius of gyration of a ring polymer to that of a linear polymer having the same number of monomers is a universal quantity whose value we calculate to first order in (epsilon) (TBOND) 4 - (dimension of space). In addition, we study the mutual excluded volume characterizing a system of two chains with different lengths. The renormalization of the polymer perturbation theory through two-loop order enables us to calculate the universal value of the interpenetration function to second order in (epsilon). Our renormalization group results are in very good agreement with the results obtained from numerical and experimental studies of rings and chains in three dimensional space. We also discuss the connection between real space and field theory renormalization. We outline the basic conceptual ideas that underlie the general theory of renormalization and illustrate how each of these ideas is realized in the real space and the field theoretic formulations.
These lectures describe the physics of phase transitions and critical phenomena. After introducing the thermodynamics of phase transitions, these general considerations are made explicit by presenting statistical mechanical calculations on a lattice gas model in the mean-field approximation. Then the Landau theory of phase transitions is presented. The form of free energy in the Landau theory is motivated by an explicit mean field calculation for the Ising model. This is followed by a discussion of spatial correlations and the breakdown of the mean field theory due to increase of spatial fluctuations near the critical point. This calculation also brings out the role of dimension of the system for the critical behaviour. The basic ideas of Renormalization Group (RG) are then introduced and illustrated by a simple RG calculation for the one-dimensional Ising model. Real-space RG calculations are then applied to the two-dimensional Ising model on the triangular lattice, which, in fact, brings forth several key features of the RG technique. A discussion of more general aspects of the RG formalism, such as scaling for spatial correlation functions, relevant and irrelevant couplings, universality, upper critical dimension, etc. are introduced.
We present a real-space renormalization-group scheme for both spin and gauge systems within a Hamiltonian formalism. The approximation, in particular, preserves gauge invariance at every step of the calculation. We apply this scheme to the (1 + 1)-dimensional Ising model in a transverse field and to the (2 + 1)-dimensional Ising gauge theory. We find reasonable results for the critical coupling and for those critical exponents which are related to energy gaps. We also obtain the correct qualitative behavior for order and disorder parameters and correlation functions. In particular, the calculation yields exponential decay for correlation functions in the disordered phase. However, the critical indices we find for spacelike quantities are not good. This defect of the approximation is related to the asymmetric scaling of space and time under the renormalization group.
The two- and three-dimensional transverse-field Ising models with ferromagnetic exchange interactions are analyzed by means of the real-space renormalization-group method. The basic strategy is a generalization of a method developed for the one-dimensional case, which exploits the exact invariance of the model under renormalization and is known to give the exact values of the critical point and critical exponent ν. The resulting values of the critical exponent ν in two and three dimensions are in good agreement with those for the classical Ising model in three and four dimensions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example in which a real-space renormalization group on (2+1)- and (3+1)-dimensional Bravais lattices yields accurate estimates of the critical exponents.
Introduction The real space renormalisation group has a wide application in the study of classical critical phenomena. For quantum systems, several versions of the real space renormalisation group have been proposed (Jullien, 1981; Pfeuty et al ., 1982; dos Santos, 1982). The real space RG is the most direct way of implementing the scaling ideas presented in Chapter 1. The operation of elimination of degrees of freedom as the system is reduced to blocks of smaller sizes under a change of length scale is directly and intuitively represented as mathematical equations. In particular, the block method has been used to study different problems of strongly correlated systems (Pfeuty et al ., 1982) and spin chains (White, 1992, 1993) with different degrees of sophistication. We show here in detail a simple form of this technique applied to the case of the one-dimensional Ising model in a transverse field. The purpose is to illustrate the ideas introduced earlier in Chapter 1 with a concrete example where a quantum critical point is associated with an unstable fixed point. Also, we show how the stable attractors or fixed points can characterise the different phases and how the critical exponents can be obtained. Although the actual values for the quantum critical point and critical exponents that we obtain using a small block are not exact, a procedure is outlined which can be used to improve these results. In this sense, the block method presented here represents a controlled approximation, which can be systematically improved to yield in the limit of very large blocks essentially the correct results. When compared to the k -space version of the RG (to be presented in the next two chapters), the real space version turns out to be in general more difficult to control, in the sense of producing a systematic improvement of the results. On the other hand, this method yields without much effort the attractive fixed points of the different phases, allowing for their characterisation. This turns out to be useful since the nature of the phase transition, whether first or second order, can be determined by exponents calculated in the attractor of this phase (Nienhuis and Naunberg, 1975).
The stated goal of this book is to fill a perceived gap between undergraduate texts on critical phenomena and advanced texts on quantum field theory, in the general area of renormalization methods. It is debatable whether this gap really exists nowadays, as a number of books have appeared in which it is made clear that field-theoretic renormalization group methods are not the preserve of particle theory, and indeed are far more easily appreciated in the contexts of statistical and condensed matter physics. Nevertheless, this volume does have a fresh aspect to it, perhaps because of the author's background in fluid dynamics and turbulence theory, rather than through the more traditional migration from particle physics. The book begins at a very elementary level, in an effort to motivate the use of renormalization methods. This is a worthy effort, but it is likely that most of this section will be thought too elementary by readers wanting to get their teeth into the subject, while those for whom this section is apparently written are likely to find the later chapters rather challenging. The author's particular approach then leads him to emphasise the role of renormalized perturbation theory (rather than the renormalization group) in a number of problems, including non-linear systems and turbulence. Some of these ideas will be novel and perhaps even surprising to traditionally trained field theorists. Most of the rest of the book is on far more familiar territory: the momentum-space renormalization group, epsilon-expansion, and so on. This is standard stuff, and, like many other textbooks, it takes a considerable chunk of the book to explain all the formalism. As a result, there is only space to discuss the standard ϕ 4 field theory as applied to the Ising model (even the N -vector model is not covered) so that no impression is conveyed of the power and extent of all the applications and generalizations of the techniques. It is regrettable that so much space is spent on rather oversimplified and unrelated models in the first part of the book that, in the end, the reader is left breathless on the threshold of the really interesting material. Despite the earlier emphasis on the application of renormalization ideas in dynamics, in the end the full power of the field-theoretical approach is not applied to the obvious arena of dynamic critical phenomena (where there certainly is currently a gap in the literature) but to the Navier--Stokes equations. The development of the book is somewhat illogical in places. Mean field theory interrupts discussion of block spin methods and scaling arguments---the two are distinct approaches. The Callan--Symanzik equation is introduced before Feynman diagrams are explained, so that there is a hiatus before the actual results for the critical exponents can be found. I think this book is too broad in some respects, and too limited in others, to be a really useful textbook for a course on renormalization methods. Those who have learned these ideas either from field theory, or from nonlinear systems, will find it more rewarding for the sections covering the topics with which they are less familiar. For this reason alone, the book should at least find a place on most library reference shelves.
The renormalization-group (RG) method discussed in this chapter has assumed a pivotal role in the modern theory of critical phenomena. It attempts to relate the partition function of a given system to that of a “similar system” with decreased degrees of freedom through a process referred to as renormalization. Exactly how these degrees of freedom are removed from the system, what we mean by a “similar” system, and how successive systems are coupled to one another are essentially the questions we take up in the introductory treatment given in this chapter. The RG method is a topic with large scope and found widely disseminated in an extensive physics literature on the topic; however, it is seldom found in engineering journals. Our purpose here is to try and make sense of some basic ideas with the RG approach so that it is more accessible to this wider community. For this we often rely upon some prior exposes of the subject in more specialized settings [1, 2, 3, 5]. In its complete sense, the RG method has only been made to work, at least analytically, for a few simple statistical-mechanical models. But aside from these numerical results, many important and quite general insights about critical phenomena can be developed from studying this approach to the problem, especially the central role played by length scale as a factor in describing the phenomenology. These ideas have significantly enhanced our understanding of ideas like scale invariance, universality classes, relevant scaling fields (as opposed to irrelevant ones), Hamiltonian renormalization, and so on; these and related concepts lie at the center of modern discourse on the subject. The essential concepts of the approach can be well illustrated using the Ising system since, with this model, lattice spins are fixed in space, which makes the analytical work quite transparent. This approach, called real space renormalization, is the RG method studied in this chapter.