Thermal renormalization group equations and the phase transition of scalarO(N)theories

Abstract

We discuss the formulation of "thermal renormalization group-equations" and their application to the finite temperature phase-transition of scalar O(N)-theories. Thermal renormalization group-equations allow for a computation of both the universal and the non-universal aspects of the critical behavior directly in terms of the zero-temperature physical couplings. They provide a nonperturbative method for a computation of quantities like real-time correlation functions in a thermal environment, where in many situations straightforward perturbation theory fails due to the bad infrared-behavior of the thermal fluctuations. We present results for the critical temperature, critical exponents and amplitudes as well as the scaling equation of state for self-interacting scalar theories.