Critical behavior atm-axial Lifshitz points: Field-theory analysis and ε-expansion results

Abstract

The critical behavior of d-dimensional systems with an n-component order parameter is reconsidered at (m,d,n)-Lifshitz points, where a wave-vector instability occurs in an m-dimensional subspace of ${R}^{d}.$ Our aim is to sort out which ones of the previously published partly contradictory \ensuremath{\epsilon}-expansion results to second order in $\ensuremath{\epsilon}=4+m/2\ensuremath{-}d$ are correct. To this end, a field-theory calculation is performed directly in the position space of $d=4+m/2\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\epsilon}$ dimensions, using dimensional regularization and minimal subtraction of ultraviolet poles. The residua of the dimensionally regularized integrals that are required to determine the series expansions of the correlation exponents ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{l2}$ and ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{l4}$ and of the wave-vector exponent ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{q}$ to order ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{2}$ are reduced to single integrals, which for general $m=1,\dots{},d\ensuremath{-}1$ can be computed numerically, and for special values of m, analytically. Our results are at variance with the original predictions for general m. For $m=2$ and $m=6,$ we confirm the results of Sak and Grest [Phys. Rev. B 17, 3602 (1978)] and Mergulh\~ao and Carneiro's recent field-theory analysis [Phys. Rev. B 59, 13 954 (1999)].