Exact Renormalization in the Statistical Mechanics of Fluids

Abstract

Wegner's paradigm for constructing renormalization groups in statistical mechanics is applied to fluids. The coordinates of the fraction ($1\ensuremath{-}y$) of the molecules are integrated over and a system of interactions describing the remaining fraction $y$ is constructed with the aid of the McMillan-Mayer solution theory. Renormalized Ursell functions are defined in terms of which the group operations are shown to be linear. The group operations commute with a scaling operation and it is found that a series of renormalization groups depending on a parameter $x$ can be constructed by combining the operation of integrating over coordinates with the scaling operation. By comparing the renormalized cluster functions with the form of the critical cluster functions given by scaling it is shown that a fixed point of one of the series of groups corresponds to the critical point. The parameter $x$ turns out to be the scaling exponent for the chemical potential. The question of the universality of critical phenomena is expressed as the question of the discreteness or continuity of the spectrum of values of the parameter $x$ for which the linear fixed-point equations have a nontrivial solution. It is suggested that this question can be answered definitively only when a precise formulation is made of the function space in which the sequence of renormalized Ursell functions must lie.