Nonperturbative Functional Renormalization Group Research Articles

Nonperturbative functional renormalization group for random field models and related disordered systems. III. Superfield formalism and ground-state dominance

We reformulate the nonperturbative functional renormalization group for the random field Ising model in a superfield formalism, extending the supersymmetric description of the critical behavior of the system first proposed by Parisi and Sourlas [Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 744 (1979)]. We show that the two crucial ingredients for this extension are the introduction of a weighting factor, which accounts for ground-state dominance when multiple metastable states are present, and of multiple copies of the original system, which allows one to access the full functional dependence of the cumulants of the renormalized disorder and to describe rare events. We then derive exact renormalization group equations for the flow of the renormalized cumulants associated with the effective average action.

Hydrodynamic collective modes for cold trapped gases

We suggest that collective oscillation frequencies of cold trapped gases can be used to test predictions from quantum many-body physics. Our motivation lies in both rigid experimental tests of theoretical calculations and a possible improvement of measurements of particle number, chemical potential or temperature. We calculate the effects of interaction, dimensionality and thermal fluctuations on the collective modes of a dilute Bose gas in the hydrodynamic limit. The underlying equation of state is provided by the non-perturbative Functional Renormalization Group or by Lee–Yang theory. The spectrum of oscillation frequencies could be measured by response techniques. Our findings are generalized to bosonic or fermionic quantum gases with an arbitrary equation of state in the two-fluid hydrodynamic regime. For any given equation of state P(μ, T) and normal fluid density nn(μ, T), the collective oscillation frequencies in a d-dimensional isotropic potential are found to be the eigenvalues of an ordinary differential operator. We suggest a method of numerical solution and discuss the zero-temperature limit. Exact results are provided for harmonic traps and certain special forms of the equation of state. We also present a phenomenological treatment of dissipation effects and discuss the possibility of exciting the different eigenmodes individually.

Beyond Miransky scaling

We study the scaling behavior of physical observables in strongly-flavored asymptotically free gauge theories, such as many-flavor QCD. Such theories approach a quantum critical point when the number of fermion flavors is increased. It is well-known that physical observables at this quantum critical point exhibit an exponential scaling behavior (Miransky scaling), provided the gauge coupling is considered as a constant external parameter. This scaling behavior is modified when the scale dependence of the gauge coupling is taken into account. Provided that the gauge coupling approaches an IR fixed point, we derive the resulting universal power-law corrections to the exponential scaling behavior and show that they are uniquely determined by the IR critical exponent of the gauge coupling. To illustrate our findings, we compute the universal corrections in many-flavor QCD with the aid of nonperturbative functional renormalization group methods. In this case, we expect the power-law scaling to be quantitatively more relevant if the theories are probed, for instance, at integer ${N}_{\mathrm{f}}$ as done in lattice simulations.

Functional renormalization-group approach to interacting bosons at zero temperature

We investigate the single-particle spectral density of interacting bosons within the non-perturbative functional renormalization group technique. The flow equations for a Bose gas are derived in a scheme which treats the two-particle density-density correlations exactly but neglects irreducible correlations among three and more particles. These flow equations are solved within a truncation which allows to extract the complete frequency and momentum structure of the normal and anomalous self-energies. Both the asymptotic small momentum regime, where perturbation regime fails, as well as the perturbative regime at larger momenta are well described within a single unified approach. The self-energies do not exhibit any infrared divergences, satisfy the U(1) symmetry constraints, and are in accordance with the Nepomnyashchy relation which states that the anomalous self-energy vanishes at zero momentum and zero frequency. From the self-energies we extract the single-particle spectral density of the two-dimensional Bose gas. The dispersion is found to be of the Bogoliubov form and shows the crossover from linear Goldstone modes to the quadratic behavior of quasi-free bosons. The damping of the quasiparticles is found to be in accordance with the standard Beliaev damping. We furthermore recover the exact asymptotic limit of the propagators derived by Gavoret and Nozieres and discuss the nature of the non-analyticities of the self-energies in the very small momentum regime.

Scaling laws near the conformal window of many-flavor QCD

We derive universal scaling laws for physical observables such as the critical temperature, the chiral condensate, and the pion decay constant as a function of the flavor number near the conformal window of many-flavor QCD in the chiral limit. We argue on general grounds that the associated critical exponents are all interrelated and can be determined from the critical exponent of the running gauge coupling at the Caswell-Banks-Zaks infrared fixed point. We illustrate our findings with the aid of nonperturbative functional Renormalization Group (RG) calculations and low-energy QCD models.

Nonperturbative functional renormalization group for random field models and related disordered systems. I. Effective average action formalism

We have developed a nonperturbative functional renormalization group approach for random field models and related disordered systems for which, due to the existence of many metastable states, conventional perturbation theory often fails. The approach combines an exact renormalization group equation for the effective average action with a nonperturbative approximation scheme based on a description of the probability distribution of the renormalized disorder through its cumulants. For the random field $O(N)$ model, the minimal truncation within this scheme is shown to reproduce the known perturbative results in the appropriate limits, near the upper and lower critical dimensions and at large number $N$ of components, while providing a unified nonperturbative description of the full $(N,d)$ plane, where $d$ is the spatial dimension.

Nonperturbative functional renormalization group for random field models and related disordered systems. II. Results for the random fieldO(N)model

We study the critical behavior and phase diagram of the $d$-dimensional random field O(N) model by means of the nonperturbative functional renormalization group approach presented in the preceding paper. We show that the dimensional reduction predictions, obtained from conventional perturbation theory, break down below a critical dimension $d_{DR}(N)$ and we provide a description of criticality, ferromagnetic ordering and quasi-long range order in the whole $(N,d)$ plane. Below $d_{DR}(N)$, our formalism gives access to both the typical behavior of the system, controlled by zero-temperature fixed points with a nonanalytic dimensionless effective action, and to the physics of rare low-energy excitations ("droplets"), described at nonzero temperature by the rounding of the nonanalyticity in a thermal boundary layer.

Fermi-surface renormalization and confinement in two coupled metallic chains

Using a nonperturbative functional renormalization group approach involving both fermionic and bosonic fields we calculate the interaction-induced change of the Fermi surface of spinless fermions moving on two chains connected by weak interchain hopping ${t}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. For a model containing interband backward scattering only we show that the distance $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ between the Fermi momenta associated with the bonding and the antibonding band can be strongly reduced, corresponding to a large reduction of the effective interchain hopping ${t}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{*}\ensuremath{\propto}\ensuremath{\Delta}$. A self-consistent one-loop approximation neglecting marginal vertex corrections and wave-function renormalizations predicts a confinement transition for sufficiently large interchain backscattering, where the renormalized ${t}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{*}$ vanishes. However, a more accurate calculation taking vertex corrections and wave-function renormalizations into account predicts only weak confinement in the sense that $0<\ensuremath{\mid}{t}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{*}\ensuremath{\mid}⪡\ensuremath{\mid}{t}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}\ensuremath{\mid}$. Our method can be applied to other strong-coupling problems where the dominant scattering channel is known.

Unified Picture of Ferromagnetism, Quasi-Long-Range Order, and Criticality in Random-Field Models

By applying the recently developed nonperturbative functional renormalization group (FRG) approach, we study the interplay between ferromagnetism, quasi-long-range order (QLRO), and criticality in the d-dimensional random-field O(N) model in the whole (N, d) diagram. Even though the "dimensional reduction" property breaks down below some critical line, the topology of the phase diagram is found similar to that of the pure O(N) model, with, however, no equivalent of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. In addition, we obtain that QLRO, namely, a topologically ordered "Bragg glass" phase, is absent in the 3-dimensional random-field XY model. The nonperturbative results are supplemented by a perturbative FRG analysis to two loops around d = 4.

Nonperturbative Functional Renormalization Group for Random-Field Models: The Way Out of Dimensional Reduction

We develop a nonperturbative functional renormalization group approach for the random-field O(N) model that allows us to investigate the ordering transition in any dimension and for any value of N including the Ising case. We show that the failure of dimensional reduction and standard perturbation theory is due to the nonanalytic nature of the zero-temperature fixed point controlling the critical behavior, nonanalyticity, which is associated with the existence of many metastable states. We find that this nonanalyticity leads to critical exponents differing from the dimensional reduction prediction only below a critical dimension dc(N)<6, with dc(N=1)>3.

Electroweak physics

The renormalization group plays an essential role in many areas of physics, both conceptually and as a practical tool to determine the long-distance low-energy properties of many systems on the one hand and on the other hand search for viable ultraviolet completions in fundamental physics. It provides us with a natural framework to study theoretical models where degrees of freedom are correlated over long distances and that may exhibit very distinct behavior on different energy scales. The nonperturbative functional renormalization-group (FRG) approach is a modern implementation of Wilson’s RG, which allows one to set up nonperturbative approximation schemes that go beyond the standard perturbative RG approaches. The FRG is based on an exact functional flow equation of a coarse-grained effective action (or Gibbs free energy in the language of statistical mechanics). We review the main approximation schemes that are commonly used to solve this flow equation and discuss applications in equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium statistical physics, quantum many-particle systems, high-energy physics and quantum gravity.