Exact flow equation for the divergence functional

Abstract

An exact functional renormalization group flow equation is derived for the divergence functional which is a generalization of the Kullback-Leibler divergence to quantum field theories in the Euclidean domain. It compares distributions with different sources and field expectation values. The renormalization group flow for a regularized version of this functional connects two limits: one where the functional is known in terms of the microscopic action or probability distribution, and the other where all fluctuations are taken into account. In the latter limit one can obtain full correlation functions from functional derivatives of the divergence functional. The flow equation provides a possibility to determine this functional non-perturbatively.