Renormalization Group Flow
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

In
theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...
, the renormalization group (RG) is a formal apparatus that allows systematic investigation of the changes of a
physical system A physical system is a collection of physical objects under study. The collection differs from a set: all the objects must coexist and have some physical relationship. In other words, it is a portion of the physical universe chosen for analys ...
as viewed at different
scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...
. In
particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...
, it reflects the changes in the underlying physical laws (codified in a
quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct phy ...
) as the energy (or mass) scale at which physical processes occur varies. A change in scale is called a scale transformation. The renormalization group is intimately related to ''scale invariance'' and ''conformal invariance'', symmetries in which a system appears the same at all scales (
self-similarity In mathematics, a self-similar object is exactly or approximately similar to a part of itself (i.e., the whole has the same shape as one or more of the parts). Many objects in the real world, such as coastlines, are statistically self-similar ...
), where under the fixed point of the renormalization group flow the field theory is conformally invariant. As the scale varies, it is as if one is decreasing (as RG is a semi-group and doesn't have a well-defined inverse operation) the magnifying power of a notional microscope viewing the system. In so-called renormalizable theories, the system at one scale will generally consist of self-similar copies of itself when viewed at a smaller scale, with different parameters describing the components of the system. The components, or fundamental variables, may relate to atoms, elementary particles, atomic spins, etc. The parameters of the theory typically describe the interactions of the components. These may be variable couplings which measure the strength of various forces, or mass parameters themselves. The components themselves may appear to be composed of more of the self-same components as one goes to shorter distances. For example, in
quantum electrodynamics In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the Theory of relativity, relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quant ...
(QED), an electron appears to be composed of electron and positron pairs and photons, as one views it at higher resolution, at very short distances. The electron at such short distances has a slightly different electric charge than does the dressed electron seen at large distances, and this change, or ''running'', in the value of the electric charge is determined by the renormalization group equation.


History

The idea of scale transformations and scale invariance is old in physics: Scaling arguments were commonplace for the
Pythagorean school Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to: Philosophy * Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras * N ...
,
Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...
, and up to
Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...
. They became popular again at the end of the 19th century, perhaps the first example being the idea of enhanced
viscosity Viscosity is a measure of a fluid's rate-dependent drag (physics), resistance to a change in shape or to movement of its neighboring portions relative to one another. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of ''thickness''; for e ...
of
Osborne Reynolds Osborne Reynolds (23 August 1842 – 21 February 1912) was an Irish-born British innovator in the understanding of fluid dynamics. Separately, his studies of heat transfer between solids and fluids brought improvements in boiler and condenser ...
, as a way to explain turbulence. The renormalization group was initially devised in particle physics, but nowadays its applications extend to
solid-state physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as solid-state chemistry, quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state phy ...
,
fluid mechanics Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasma (physics), plasmas) and the forces on them. Originally applied to water (hydromechanics), it found applications in a wide range of discipl ...
,
physical cosmology Physical cosmology is a branch of cosmology concerned with the study of cosmological models. A cosmological model, or simply cosmology, provides a description of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and allows study of fu ...
, and even
nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...
. An early article by
Ernst Stueckelberg Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg (baptised as Johann Melchior Ernst Karl Gerlach Stückelberg, full name after 1911: Baron Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg von Breidenbach zu Breidenstein und Melsbach; 1 February 1905 – 4 September 1984) was a S ...
and
André Petermann Andreas Emil Petermann (27 September 1922– 21 August 2011), known as André Petermann, was a Swiss theoretical physicist known for introducing the renormalization group, suggesting a quark-like model, and work related to the anomalous magnetic ...
in 1953 anticipates the idea in
quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct phy ...
. Stueckelberg and Petermann opened the field conceptually. They noted that
renormalization Renormalization is a collection of techniques in quantum field theory, statistical field theory, and the theory of self-similar geometric structures, that is used to treat infinities arising in calculated quantities by altering values of the ...
exhibits a
group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
of transformations which transfers quantities from the bare terms to the counter terms. They introduced a function ''h''(''e'') in quantum electrodynamics (QED), which is now known as the
beta function In mathematics, the beta function, also called the Euler integral of the first kind, is a special function that is closely related to the gamma function and to binomial coefficients. It is defined by the integral : \Beta(z_1,z_2) = \int_0^1 t^ ...
(see below).


Beginnings

Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American theoretical physicist who played a preeminent role in the development of the theory of elementary particles. Gell-Mann introduced the concept of quarks as the funda ...
and
Francis E. Low Francis Eugene Low (October 27, 1921 – February 16, 2007) was an American theoretical physicist. He was an Institute Professor at MIT, and served as provost there from 1980 to 1985. He was a member of the influential JASON Defense Advisory Grou ...
restricted the idea to scale transformations in QED in 1954, which are the most physically significant, and focused on asymptotic forms of the photon propagator at high energies. They determined the variation of the electromagnetic coupling in QED, by appreciating the simplicity of the scaling structure of that theory. They thus discovered that the coupling parameter ''g''(''μ'') at the energy scale ''μ'' is effectively given by the (one-dimensional translation) group equation g(\mu)=G^\left(\left(\frac\right)^d G(g(M))\right) or equivalently, G\left(g(\mu)\right)= G(g(M))\left(/\right)^d, for an arbitrary function ''G'' (known as Wegner's scaling function, after
Franz Wegner Franz Joachim Wegner (born 15 June 1940) is emeritus professor for theoretical physics at the University of Heidelberg. Education Franz Wegner attained a doctorate in 1968 with thesis advisor Wilhelm Brenig at the Technical University Munich wit ...
) and a constant ''d'', in terms of the coupling ''g(M)'' at a reference scale ''M''. Gell-Mann and Low realized in these results that the effective scale can be arbitrarily taken as ''μ'', and can vary to define the theory at any other scale: g(\kappa)=G^\left(\left(\frac\right)^d G(g(\mu))\right) = G^\left(\left(\frac\right)^d G(g(M))\right) The gist of the RG is this group property: as the scale ''μ'' varies, the theory presents a self-similar replica of itself, and any scale can be accessed similarly from any other scale, by group action, a formal transitive conjugacy of couplings in the mathematical sense (
Schröder's equation Schröder's equation, named after Ernst Schröder, is a functional equation with one independent variable: given the function , find the function such that Schröder's equation is an eigenvalue equation for the composition operator that sen ...
). On the basis of this (finite) group equation and its scaling property, Gell-Mann and Low could then focus on infinitesimal transformations, and invented a computational method based on a mathematical flow function of the coupling parameter ''g'', which they introduced. Like the function ''h''(''e'') of Stueckelberg–Petermann, their function determines the differential change of the coupling ''g''(''μ'') with respect to a small change in energy scale ''μ'' through a differential equation, the ''renormalization group equation'': \displaystyle\frac = \psi(g) = \beta(g) The modern name is also indicated, the
beta function In mathematics, the beta function, also called the Euler integral of the first kind, is a special function that is closely related to the gamma function and to binomial coefficients. It is defined by the integral : \Beta(z_1,z_2) = \int_0^1 t^ ...
, introduced by Curtis Callan and Kurt Symanzik in 1970. Since it is a mere function of ''g'', integration in ''g'' of a perturbative estimate of it permits specification of the renormalization trajectory of the coupling, that is, its variation with energy, effectively the function ''G'' in this perturbative approximation. The renormalization group prediction (cf. Stueckelberg–Petermann and Gell-Mann–Low works) was confirmed 40 years later at the
Large Electron–Positron Collider The Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) was one of the largest particle accelerators ever constructed. It was built at CERN, a multi-national centre for research in nuclear and particle physics near Geneva, Switzerland. LEP collided electr ...
(LEP) experiments: the fine structure "constant" of QED was measured to be about at energies close to 200 GeV, as opposed to the standard low-energy physics value of .


Deeper understanding

The renormalization group emerges from the
renormalization Renormalization is a collection of techniques in quantum field theory, statistical field theory, and the theory of self-similar geometric structures, that is used to treat infinities arising in calculated quantities by altering values of the ...
of the quantum field variables, which normally has to address the problem of infinities in a quantum field theory. This problem of systematically handling the infinities of quantum field theory to obtain finite physical quantities was solved for QED by
Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...
,
Julian Schwinger Julian Seymour Schwinger (; February 12, 1918 – July 16, 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on quantum electrodynamics (QED), in particular for developing a relativistically invariant ...
and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, who received the 1965 Nobel prize for these contributions. They effectively devised the theory of mass and charge renormalization, in which the infinity in the momentum scale is cut off by an ultra-large regulator, Λ. The dependence of physical quantities, such as the electric charge or electron mass, on the scale Λ is hidden, effectively swapped for the longer-distance scales at which the physical quantities are measured, and, as a result, all observable quantities end up being finite instead, even for an infinite Λ. Gell-Mann and Low thus realized in these results that, infinitesimally, while a tiny change in '' g'' is provided by the above RG equation given ψ(''g''), the self-similarity is expressed by the fact that ψ(''g'') depends explicitly only upon the parameter(s) of the theory, and not upon the scale ''μ''. Consequently, the above renormalization group equation may be solved for (''G'' and thus) ''g''(''μ''). A deeper understanding of the physical meaning and generalization of the renormalization process, which goes beyond the dilation group of conventional ''renormalizable'' theories, considers methods where widely different scales of lengths appear simultaneously. It came from
condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid State of matter, phases, that arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms and elec ...
: Leo P. Kadanoff's paper in 1966 proposed the "block-spin" renormalization group. The "blocking idea" is a way to define the components of the theory at large distances as aggregates of components at shorter distances. This approach covered the conceptual point and was given full computational substance in the extensive important work of Kenneth Wilson. The power of Wilson's ideas was demonstrated by a constructive iterative renormalization solution of a long-standing problem, the Kondo problem, in 1975, as well as the preceding seminal developments of his new method in the theory of second-order phase transitions and
critical phenomena In physics, critical phenomena is the collective name associated with the physics of critical points. Most of them stem from the divergence of the correlation length, but also the dynamics slows down. Critical phenomena include scaling relations ...
in 1971. He was awarded the Nobel prize for these decisive contributions in 1982.


Reformulation

Meanwhile, the RG in particle physics had been reformulated in more practical terms by Callan and Symanzik in 1970. The above beta function, which describes the "running of the coupling" parameter with scale, was also found to amount to the "canonical trace anomaly", which represents the quantum-mechanical breaking of scale (dilation) symmetry in a field theory. Applications of the RG to particle physics exploded in number in the 1970s with the establishment of the
Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...
. In 1973, it was discovered that a theory of interacting colored quarks, called
quantum chromodynamics In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the study of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type of ...
, had a negative beta function. This means that an initial high-energy value of the coupling will eventuate a special value of at which the coupling blows up (diverges). This special value is the scale of the strong interactions, = and occurs at about 200 MeV. Conversely, the coupling becomes weak at very high energies (
asymptotic freedom In quantum field theory, asymptotic freedom is a property of some gauge theory, gauge theories that causes interactions between particles to become asymptotically weaker as the energy scale increases and the corresponding length scale decreases. (A ...
), and the quarks become observable as point-like particles, in
deep inelastic scattering In particle physics, deep inelastic scattering is the name given to a process used to probe the insides of hadrons (particularly the baryons, such as protons and neutrons), using electrons, muons and neutrinos. It was first attempted in the 196 ...
, as anticipated by Feynman–Bjorken scaling. QCD was thereby established as the quantum field theory controlling the strong interactions of particles. Momentum space RG also became a highly developed tool in solid state physics, but was hindered by the extensive use of perturbation theory, which prevented the theory from succeeding in strongly correlated systems.


Conformal symmetry

Conformal symmetry is associated with the vanishing of the beta function. This can occur naturally if a coupling constant is attracted, by running, toward a ''fixed point'' at which ''β''(''g'') = 0. In QCD, the fixed point occurs at short distances where ''g'' → 0 and is called a ( trivial) ultraviolet fixed point. For heavy quarks, such as the
top quark The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, (symbol: t) is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs field. This coupling is very close to unity; in the Standard ...
, the coupling to the mass-giving
Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
runs toward a fixed non-zero (non-trivial)
infrared fixed point In physics, an infrared fixed point is a set of coupling constants, or other parameters, that evolve from arbitrary initial values at very high energies (short distance) to fixed, stable values, usually predictable, at low energies (large distance ...
, first predicted by Pendleton and Ross (1981), and C. T. Hill. The top quark Yukawa coupling lies slightly below the infrared fixed point of the Standard Model suggesting the possibility of additional new physics, such as sequential heavy Higgs bosons. In
string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...
, conformal invariance of the string world-sheet is a fundamental symmetry: ''β'' = 0 is a requirement. Here, ''β'' is a function of the geometry of the space-time in which the string moves. This determines the space-time dimensionality of the string theory and enforces Einstein's equations of
general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...
on the geometry. The RG is of fundamental importance to string theory and theories of
grand unification A Grand Unified Theory (GUT) is any model in particle physics that merges the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces (the three gauge interactions of the Standard Model) into a single force at high energies. Although this unified force ha ...
. It is also the modern key idea underlying
critical phenomena In physics, critical phenomena is the collective name associated with the physics of critical points. Most of them stem from the divergence of the correlation length, but also the dynamics slows down. Critical phenomena include scaling relations ...
in condensed matter physics. Indeed, the RG has become one of the most important tools of modern physics. It is often used in combination with the
Monte Carlo method Monte Carlo methods, or Monte Carlo experiments, are a broad class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results. The underlying concept is to use randomness to solve problems that might be ...
.


Block spin

This section introduces pedagogically a picture of RG which may be easiest to grasp: the block spin RG, devised by Leo P. Kadanoff in 1966. Consider a 2D solid, a set of atoms in a perfect square array, as depicted in the figure. Assume that atoms interact among themselves only with their nearest neighbours, and that the system is at a given temperature . The strength of their interaction is quantified by a certain coupling . The physics of the system will be described by a certain formula, say the Hamiltonian . Now proceed to divide the solid into blocks of 2×2 squares; we attempt to describe the system in terms of block variables, i.e., variables which describe the average behavior of the block. Further assume that, by some lucky coincidence, the physics of block variables is described by a ''formula of the same kind'', but with different values for and : . (This isn't exactly true, in general, but it is often a good first approximation.) Perhaps, the initial problem was too hard to solve, since there were too many atoms. Now, in the renormalized problem we have only one fourth of them. But why stop now? Another iteration of the same kind leads to , and only one sixteenth of the atoms. We are increasing the observation scale with each RG step. Of course, the best idea is to iterate until there is only one very big block. Since the number of atoms in any real sample of material is very large, this is more or less equivalent to finding the ''long range'' behavior of the RG transformation which took and . Often, when iterated many times, this RG transformation leads to a certain number of fixed points. To be more concrete, consider a
magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or repel each other. Because both electric currents and magnetic moments of elementary particles give rise to a magnetic field, m ...
system (e.g., the
Ising model The Ising model (or Lenz–Ising model), named after the physicists Ernst Ising and Wilhelm Lenz, is a mathematical models in physics, mathematical model of ferromagnetism in statistical mechanics. The model consists of discrete variables that r ...
), in which the coupling denotes the trend of neighbor
spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...
s to be aligned. The configuration of the system is the result of the tradeoff between the ordering term and the disordering effect of temperature. For many models of this kind there are three fixed points: # and . This means that, at the largest size, temperature becomes unimportant, i.e., the disordering factor vanishes. Thus, in large scales, the system appears to be ordered. We are in a
ferromagnetic Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials (such as iron) that results in a significant, observable magnetic permeability, and in many cases, a significant magnetic coercivity, allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagne ...
phase. # and . Exactly the opposite; here, temperature dominates, and the system is disordered at large scales. # A nontrivial point between them, and . In this point, changing the scale does not change the physics, because the system is in a
fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a Shape, geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scale ...
state. It corresponds to the
Curie Curie may refer to: *Curie family, a family of distinguished scientists: :* Jacques Curie (1856–1941), French physicist, Pierre's brother :* Pierre Curie (1859–1906), French physicist and Nobel Prize winner, Marie's husband :* Marie Curi ...
phase transition In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic Sta ...
, and is also called a critical point. So, if we are given a certain material with given values of and , all we have to do in order to find out the large-scale behaviour of the system is to iterate the pair until we find the corresponding fixed point.


Elementary theory

In more technical terms, let us assume that we have a theory described by a certain function Z of the
state variables A state variable is one of the set of variables that are used to describe the mathematical "state" of a dynamical system. Intuitively, the state of a system describes enough about the system to determine its future behaviour in the absence of a ...
\ and a certain set of coupling constants \. This function may be a partition function, an
action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...
, a
Hamiltonian Hamiltonian may refer to: * Hamiltonian mechanics, a function that represents the total energy of a system * Hamiltonian (quantum mechanics), an operator corresponding to the total energy of that system ** Dyall Hamiltonian, a modified Hamiltonian ...
, etc. It must contain the whole description of the physics of the system. Now we consider a certain blocking transformation of the state variables \\to \, the number of \tilde s_i must be lower than the number of s_i. Now let us try to rewrite the Z function ''only'' in terms of the \tilde s_i. If this is achievable by a certain change in the parameters, \\to \, then the theory is said to be renormalizable. Most fundamental theories of physics such as
quantum electrodynamics In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the Theory of relativity, relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quant ...
,
quantum chromodynamics In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the study of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type of ...
and
electro-weak In particle physics, the electroweak interaction or electroweak force is the unified field theory, unified description of two of the fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism, electromagnetism (electromagnetic interaction) and the weak ...
interaction, but not gravity, are exactly renormalizable. Also, most theories in condensed matter physics are approximately renormalizable, from
superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where Electrical resistance and conductance, electrical resistance vanishes and Magnetic field, magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ord ...
to fluid turbulence. The change in the parameters is implemented by a certain beta function: \=\beta(\), which is said to induce a renormalization group flow (or RG flow) on the J-space. The values of J under the flow are called running couplings. As was stated in the previous section, the most important information in the RG flow are its fixed points. The possible macroscopic states of the system, at a large scale, are given by this set of fixed points. If these fixed points correspond to a free field theory, the theory is said to exhibit
quantum triviality In a quantum field theory, charge screening can restrict the value of the observable "renormalized" charge of a classical theory. If the only resulting value of the renormalized charge is zero, the theory is said to be "trivial" or noninteracting. ...
, possessing what is called a
Landau pole In physics, the Landau pole (or the Moscow zero, or the Landau ghost) is the momentum (or energy) scale at which the coupling constant (interaction strength) of a quantum field theory becomes infinite. Such a possibility was pointed out by the ph ...
, as in quantum electrodynamics. For a 4 interaction,
Michael Aizenman Michael Aizenman (; born 28 August 1945) is an American-Israeli mathematician and a physicist at Princeton University, working in the fields of mathematical physics, statistical mechanics, functional analysis and probability theory. The highligh ...
proved that this theory is indeed trivial, for space-time dimension ≥ 5. For = 4, the triviality has yet to be proven rigorously, but lattice computations have provided strong evidence for this. This fact is important as
quantum triviality In a quantum field theory, charge screening can restrict the value of the observable "renormalized" charge of a classical theory. If the only resulting value of the renormalized charge is zero, the theory is said to be "trivial" or noninteracting. ...
can be used to bound or even ''predict'' parameters such as the
Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
mass in
asymptotic safety Asymptotic safety (sometimes also referred to as nonperturbative renormalizability) is a concept in quantum field theory which aims at finding a consistent and predictive quantum theory of the gravitational field. Its key ingredient is a nontrivi ...
scenarios. Numerous fixed points appear in the study of lattice Higgs theories, but the nature of the quantum field theories associated with these remains an open question. Since the RG transformations in such systems are lossy (i.e.: the number of variables decreases - see as an example in a different context,
Lossy data compression In information technology, lossy compression or irreversible compression is the class of data compression methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. These techniques are used to reduce data size ...
), there need not be an inverse for a given RG transformation. Thus, in such lossy systems, the renormalization group is, in fact, a
semigroup In mathematics, a semigroup is an algebraic structure consisting of a set together with an associative internal binary operation on it. The binary operation of a semigroup is most often denoted multiplicatively (just notation, not necessarily th ...
, as lossiness implies that there is no unique inverse for each element.


Relevant and irrelevant operators and universality classes

Consider a certain observable of a physical system undergoing an RG transformation. The magnitude of the observable as the
length scale In physics, length scale is a particular length or distance determined with the precision of at most a few orders of magnitude. The concept of length scale is particularly important because physical phenomena of different length scales cannot af ...
of the system goes from small to large determines the importance of the observable(s) for the scaling law: A ''relevant'' observable is needed to describe the macroscopic behaviour of the system; ''irrelevant'' observables are not needed. ''Marginal'' observables may or may not need to be taken into account. A remarkable broad fact is that ''most observables are irrelevant'', i.e., ''the macroscopic physics is dominated by only a few observables in most systems''. As an example, in microscopic physics, to describe a system consisting of a
mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole" * Golden mole, southern African mammals * Marsupial mole Marsupial moles, the Notoryctidae family, are two species of highly specialized marsupial mammals that are found i ...
of
carbon-12 Carbon-12 (12C) is the most abundant of the two stable isotopes of carbon ( carbon-13 being the other), amounting to 98.93% of element carbon on Earth; its abundance is due to the triple-alpha process by which it is created in stars. Carbon-1 ...
atoms we need of the order of 10 (the
Avogadro number The Avogadro constant, commonly denoted or , is an SI defining constant with an exact value of when expressed in reciprocal moles. It defines the ratio of the number of constituent particles to the amount of substance in a sample, where th ...
) variables, while to describe it as a macroscopic system (12 grams of carbon-12) we only need a few. Before Wilson's RG approach, there was an astonishing empirical fact to explain: The coincidence of the
critical exponents Critical exponents describe the behavior of physical quantities near continuous phase transitions. It is believed, though not proven, that they are universal, i.e. they do not depend on the details of the physical system, but only on some of its g ...
(i.e., the exponents of the reduced-temperature dependence of several quantities near a
second order phase transition In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic sta ...
) in very disparate phenomena, such as magnetic systems, superfluid transition (
Lambda transition The ''λ'' (lambda) universality class is a group in condensed matter physics. It regroups several systems possessing strong analogies, namely, superfluids, superconductors and smectics (liquid crystals). All these systems are expected to belong ...
), alloy physics, etc. So in general, thermodynamic features of a system near a phase transition ''depend only on a small number of variables'', such as the dimensionality and symmetry, but are insensitive to details of the underlying microscopic properties of the system. This coincidence of critical exponents for ostensibly quite different physical systems, called universality, is easily explained using the renormalization group, by demonstrating that the differences in phenomena among the individual fine-scale components are determined by ''irrelevant observables'', while the ''relevant observables'' are shared in common. Hence many macroscopic phenomena may be grouped into a small set of
universality class In statistical mechanics, a universality class is a collection of mathematical models which share a single scale-invariant limit under the process of renormalization group flow. While the models within a class may differ dramatically at finite sc ...
es, specified by the shared sets of relevant observables.


Momentum space

Renormalization groups, in practice, come in two main "flavors". The Kadanoff picture explained above refers mainly to the so-called real-space RG. Momentum-space RG on the other hand, has a longer history despite its relative subtlety. It can be used for systems where the degrees of freedom can be cast in terms of the
Fourier modes A Fourier series () is an expansion of a periodic function into a sum of trigonometric functions. The Fourier series is an example of a trigonometric series. By expressing a function as a sum of sines and cosines, many problems involving the fun ...
of a given field. The RG transformation proceeds by ''integrating out'' a certain set of high-momentum (large-wavenumber) modes. Since large wavenumbers are related to short-length scales, the momentum-space RG results in an essentially analogous coarse-graining effect as with real-space RG. Momentum-space RG is usually performed on a
perturbation Perturbation or perturb may refer to: * Perturbation theory, mathematical methods that give approximate solutions to problems that cannot be solved exactly * Perturbation (geology), changes in the nature of alluvial deposits over time * Perturbati ...
expansion. The validity of such an expansion is predicated upon the actual physics of a system being close to that of a
free field In physics a free field is a field without interactions, which is described by the terms of motion and mass. Description In classical physics, a free field is a field whose equations of motion are given by linear partial differential equ ...
system. In this case, one may calculate observables by summing the leading terms in the expansion. This approach has proved successful for many theories, including most of particle physics, but fails for systems whose physics is very far from any free system, i.e., systems with strong correlations. As an example of the physical meaning of RG in particle physics, consider an overview of ''charge renormalization'' in
quantum electrodynamics In particle physics, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the Theory of relativity, relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quant ...
(QED). Suppose we have a point positive charge of a certain true (or bare) magnitude. The electromagnetic field around it has a certain energy, and thus may produce some virtual electron-positron pairs (for example). Although virtual particles annihilate very quickly, during their short lives the electron will be attracted by the charge, and the positron will be repelled. Since this happens uniformly everywhere near the point charge, where its electric field is sufficiently strong, these pairs effectively create a screen around the charge when viewed from far away. The measured strength of the charge will depend on how close our measuring probe can approach the point charge, bypassing more of the screen of virtual particles the closer it gets. Hence a ''dependence of a certain coupling constant (here, the electric charge) with distance scale''. Momentum and length scales are related inversely, according to the
de Broglie relation Matter waves are a central part of the theory of quantum mechanics, being half of wave–particle duality. At all scales where measurements have been practical, matter exhibits wave-like behavior. For example, a beam of electrons can be diffract ...
: The higher the energy or momentum scale we may reach, the lower the length scale we may probe and resolve. Therefore, the momentum-space RG practitioners sometimes claim to ''integrate out'' high momenta or high energy from their theories.


Exact renormalization group equations

An exact renormalization group equation (ERGE) is one that takes
irrelevant Relevance is the connection between topics that makes one useful for dealing with the other. Relevance is studied in many different fields, including cognitive science, logic, and library and information science. Epistemology studies it in gener ...
couplings into account. There are several formulations. The Wilson ERGE is the simplest conceptually, but is practically impossible to implement.
Fourier transform In mathematics, the Fourier transform (FT) is an integral transform that takes a function as input then outputs another function that describes the extent to which various frequencies are present in the original function. The output of the tr ...
into
momentum space In physics and geometry, there are two closely related vector spaces, usually three-dimensional but in general of any finite dimension. Position space (also real space or coordinate space) is the set of all ''position vectors'' r in Euclidean sp ...
after Wick rotating into
Euclidean space Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, in Euclid's ''Elements'', it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are ''Euclidean spaces ...
. Insist upon a hard momentum cutoff, so that the only degrees of freedom are those with momenta less than . The partition function is Z=\int_ \mathcal\varphi \exp\left S_\Lambda[\varphiright">varphi.html" ;"title="S_\Lambda[\varphi">S_\Lambda[\varphiright For any positive Λ′ less than Λ, define ''S''Λ′ (a functional over field configurations whose Fourier transform has momentum support within ) as \exp\left(-S_
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
right)\ \stackrel\ \int_ \mathcal\varphi \exp\left S_\Lambda[\varphiright">varphi.html" ;"title="S_\Lambda[\varphi">S_\Lambda[\varphiright If depends only on and not on derivatives of , this may be rewritten as \exp\left(-S_
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
right)\ \stackrel\ \prod_\int d\varphi(p) \exp\left[-S_\Lambda[\varphi(p)]\right], in which it becomes clear that, since only functions ''φ'' with support between and are integrated over, the left hand side may still depend on with support outside that range. Obviously, Z=\int_\mathcal\varphi \exp\left S_
varphi.html" ;"title="S_[\varphi">S_[\varphiright In fact, this transformation is transitive relation">transitive. If you compute from and then compute from , this gives you the same Wilsonian action as computing ''S''Λ″ directly from ''S''Λ. The Polchinski ERGE involves a smooth Smooth may refer to: Mathematics * Smooth function, a function that is infinitely differentiable; used in calculus and topology * Smooth manifold, a differentiable manifold for which all the transition maps are smooth functions * Smooth algebrai ...
UV regularization (physics)">regulator cutoff. Basically, the idea is an improvement over the Wilson ERGE. Instead of a sharp momentum cutoff, it uses a smooth cutoff. Essentially, we suppress contributions from momenta greater than heavily. The smoothness of the cutoff, however, allows us to derive a functional differential equation in the cutoff scale . As in Wilson's approach, we have a different action functional for each cutoff energy scale . Each of these actions are supposed to describe exactly the same model which means that their partition functionals have to match exactly. In other words, (for a real scalar field; generalizations to other fields are obvious), Z_\Lambda \int \mathcal\varphi \exp\left(-S_\Lambda
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
J\cdot \varphi\right)=\int \mathcal\varphi \exp\left(-\tfrac\varphi\cdot R_\Lambda \cdot \varphi-S_
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
J\cdot\varphi\right) and ''Z''Λ is really independent of ! We have used the condensed
deWitt notation Physics often deals with classical models where the dynamical variables are a collection of functions ''α'' over a d-dimensional space/spacetime manifold ''M'' where ''α'' is the " flavor" index. This involves functionals over the ''φs, functi ...
here. We have also split the bare action ''S''Λ into a quadratic kinetic part and an interacting part ''S''int Λ. This split most certainly isn't clean. The "interacting" part can very well also contain quadratic
kinetic term In quantum field theory, a kinetic term is any term in the Lagrangian that is bilinear in the fields and has at least one derivative. Fields with kinetic terms are dynamical and together with mass terms define a free field theory. Their form i ...
s. In fact, if there is any
wave function renormalization In quantum field theory, wave function renormalization is a rescaling (or renormalization) of quantum fields to take into account the effects of interactions. For a noninteracting or free field, the field operator creates or annihilates a single ...
, it most certainly will. This can be somewhat reduced by introducing field rescalings. RΛ is a function of the momentum p and the second term in the exponent is \frac\int \frac\tilde^*(p)R_\Lambda(p)\tilde(p) when expanded. When p \ll \Lambda, is essentially 1. When p \gg \Lambda, becomes very very huge and approaches infinity. is always greater than or equal to 1 and is smooth. Basically, this leaves the fluctuations with momenta less than the cutoff unaffected but heavily suppresses contributions from fluctuations with momenta greater than the cutoff. This is obviously a huge improvement over Wilson. The condition that \fracZ_\Lambda=0 can be satisfied by (but not only by) \fracS_=\frac\frac\cdot \left(\fracR_\Lambda^\right)\cdot \frac-\frac\operatorname\left frac\cdot R_\Lambda^\right Jacques Distler claimed without proof that this ERGE is not correct
nonperturbative In mathematics and physics, a non-perturbative function or process is one that cannot be described by perturbation theory. An example is the function : f(x) = e^, which does not equal its own Taylor series in any neighborhood around ''x'' = 0. ...
ly. The effective average action ERGE involves a smooth IR regulator cutoff. The idea is to take all fluctuations right up to an IR scale into account. The effective average action(EAA) will be accurate for fluctuations with momenta larger than . As the parameter is lowered, the effective average action approaches the
effective action In quantum field theory, the quantum effective action is a modified expression for the classical action taking into account quantum corrections while ensuring that the principle of least action applies, meaning that extremizing the effective act ...
which includes all quantum and classical fluctuations. In contrast, for large the effective average action is close to the "bare action". So, the effective average action interpolates between the "bare action" and the
effective action In quantum field theory, the quantum effective action is a modified expression for the classical action taking into account quantum corrections while ensuring that the principle of least action applies, meaning that extremizing the effective act ...
. For a real
scalar field In mathematics and physics, a scalar field is a function associating a single number to each point in a region of space – possibly physical space. The scalar may either be a pure mathematical number ( dimensionless) or a scalar physical ...
, one adds an IR cutoff \frac\int \frac \tilde^*(p)R_k(p)\tilde(p) to the
action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...
, where ''R''''k'' is a function of both and such that for p \gg k, Rk(p) is very tiny and approaches 0 and for p \ll k, R_k(p)\gtrsim k^2. ''R''''k'' is both smooth and nonnegative. Its large value for small momenta leads to a suppression of their contribution to the partition function which is effectively the same thing as neglecting large-scale fluctuations. One can use the condensed
deWitt notation Physics often deals with classical models where the dynamical variables are a collection of functions ''α'' over a d-dimensional space/spacetime manifold ''M'' where ''α'' is the " flavor" index. This involves functionals over the ''φs, functi ...
\frac \varphi\cdot R_k \cdot \varphi for this IR regulator. So, \exp\left(W_k right)=Z_k \int \mathcal\varphi \exp\left(-S
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
\frac\varphi \cdot R_k \cdot \varphi +J\cdot\varphi\right) where is the
source field In theoretical physics, a source is an abstract concept, developed by Julian Schwinger, motivated by the physical effects of surrounding particles involved in creating or destroying another particle. So, one can perceive sources as the origin of th ...
. The
Legendre transform In mathematics, the Legendre transformation (or Legendre transform), first introduced by Adrien-Marie Legendre in 1787 when studying the minimal surface problem, is an involutive transformation on real-valued functions that are convex on a real ...
of ''W''''k'' ordinarily gives the
effective action In quantum field theory, the quantum effective action is a modified expression for the classical action taking into account quantum corrections while ensuring that the principle of least action applies, meaning that extremizing the effective act ...
. However, the action that we started off with is really ''S'' 'φ''nbsp;+ 1/2 ''φ⋅R''''k''⋅''φ'' and so, to get the effective average action, we subtract off 1/2 ''φ''⋅''R''''k''⋅''φ''. In other words, \varphi ;k\frac /math> can be inverted to give ''J''''k'' 'φ''and we define the effective average action Γ''k'' as \Gamma_k
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
\stackrel\ \left(-W \left[J_k
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
right] + J_k
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
cdot\varphi\right)-\tfrac\varphi\cdot R_k\cdot \varphi. Hence, \begin \frac\Gamma_k
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
&=-\fracW_k _k[\varphi-\frac\cdot\fracJ_k
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
\fracJ_k
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
cdot \varphi-\tfrac\varphi\cdot \fracR_k \cdot \varphi \\ &=-\fracW_k _k[\varphi-\tfrac\varphi\cdot \fracR_k \cdot \varphi \\ &=\tfrac\left\langle\varphi \cdot \fracR_k \cdot \varphi\right\rangle_-\tfrac \varphi\cdot \fracR_k \cdot \varphi \\ &=\tfrac\operatorname\left[\left(\frac\right)^\cdot\fracR_k\right] \\ &=\tfrac\operatorname\left[\left(\frac + R_k \right)^\cdot\fracR_k\right] \end thus \frac\Gamma_k
varphi Phi ( ; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plos ...
=\tfrac\operatorname\left left(\frac+R_k\right)^\cdot\fracR_k\right/math> is the ERGE which is also known as the Wetterich equation. As shown by Morris the effective action Γk is in fact simply related to Polchinski's effective action Sint via a Legendre transform relation. As there are infinitely many choices of ''k'', there are also infinitely many different interpolating ERGEs. Generalization to other fields like spinorial fields is straightforward. Although the Polchinski ERGE and the effective average action ERGE look similar, they are based upon very different philosophies. In the effective average action ERGE, the bare action is left unchanged (and the UV cutoff scale—if there is one—is also left unchanged) but the IR contributions to the effective action are suppressed whereas in the Polchinski ERGE, the QFT is fixed once and for all but the "bare action" is varied at different energy scales to reproduce the prespecified model. Polchinski's version is certainly much closer to Wilson's idea in spirit. Note that one uses "bare actions" whereas the other uses effective (average) actions.


Renormalization group improvement of the effective potential

The renormalization group can also be used to compute effective potentials at orders higher than 1-loop. This kind of approach is particularly interesting to compute corrections to the Coleman–Weinberg mechanism. To do so, one must write the renormalization group equation in terms of the effective potential. To the case of the \varphi^4 model: \left(\mu\frac + \beta_\lambda\frac + \varphi\gamma_\varphi\frac\right) V_\text = 0. In order to determine the effective potential, it is useful to write V_\text as V_\text = \frac \varphi^4 S_\text\big(\lambda, L(\varphi)\big), where S_\text is a
power series In mathematics, a power series (in one variable) is an infinite series of the form \sum_^\infty a_n \left(x - c\right)^n = a_0 + a_1 (x - c) + a_2 (x - c)^2 + \dots where ''a_n'' represents the coefficient of the ''n''th term and ''c'' is a co ...
in L(\varphi) = \log \frac: S_\text = A + BL + CL^2 + DL^3 + \cdots. Using the above
ansatz In physics and mathematics, an ansatz (; , meaning: "initial placement of a tool at a work piece", plural ansatzes or, from German, ansätze ; ) is an educated guess or an additional assumption made to help solve a problem, and which may later be ...
, it is possible to solve the renormalization group equation perturbatively and find the effective potential up to desired order. A pedagogical explanation of this technique is shown in reference.


See also

*
Quantum triviality In a quantum field theory, charge screening can restrict the value of the observable "renormalized" charge of a classical theory. If the only resulting value of the renormalized charge is zero, the theory is said to be "trivial" or noninteracting. ...
*
Scale invariance In physics, mathematics and statistics, scale invariance is a feature of objects or laws that do not change if scales of length, energy, or other variables, are multiplied by a common factor, and thus represent a universality. The technical term ...
*
Schröder's equation Schröder's equation, named after Ernst Schröder, is a functional equation with one independent variable: given the function , find the function such that Schröder's equation is an eigenvalue equation for the composition operator that sen ...
*
Regularization (physics) In physics, especially quantum field theory, regularization is a method of modifying observables which have singularities in order to make them finite by the introduction of a suitable parameter called the regulator. The regulator, also known ...
*
Density matrix renormalization group The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) is a numerical variational technique devised to obtain the low-energy physics of quantum many-body systems with high accuracy. As a variational method, DMRG is an efficient algorithm that attempts ...
*
Functional renormalization group In theoretical physics, functional renormalization group (FRG) is an implementation of the renormalization group (RG) concept which is used in quantum and statistical field theory, especially when dealing with strongly interacting systems. The met ...
*
Critical phenomena In physics, critical phenomena is the collective name associated with the physics of critical points. Most of them stem from the divergence of the correlation length, but also the dynamics slows down. Critical phenomena include scaling relations ...
*
Universality (dynamical systems) In statistical mechanics, universality is the observation that there are properties for a large class of systems that are independent of the Dynamics (mechanics), dynamical details of the system. Systems display universality in a scaling limit, whe ...
*
C-theorem In quantum field theory the ''C''-theorem states that there exists a positive real function, C(g^_i,\mu), depending on the coupling constants of the quantum field theory considered, g^_i, and on the energy scale, \mu^_, which has the following pro ...
*
History of quantum field theory In particle physics, the history of quantum field theory starts with its creation by Paul Dirac, when he attempted to quantize the electromagnetic field in the late 1920s. Major advances in the theory were made in the 1940s and 1950s, leading t ...
*
Top quark The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, (symbol: t) is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs field. This coupling is very close to unity; in the Standard ...
*
Asymptotic safety Asymptotic safety (sometimes also referred to as nonperturbative renormalizability) is a concept in quantum field theory which aims at finding a consistent and predictive quantum theory of the gravitational field. Its key ingredient is a nontrivi ...


Remarks


Citations


References


Historical references

*


Pedagogical and historical reviews

* The most successful variational RG method. * * A mathematical introduction and historical overview with a stress on
group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...
and the application in high-energy physics. * A pedestrian introduction to renormalization and the renormalization group. * A pedestrian introduction to the renormalization group as applied in condensed matter physics. * * *


Books

* T. D. Lee; ''Particle physics and introduction to field theory'', Harwood academic publishers, 1981, . Contains a Concise, simple, and trenchant summary of the group structure, in whose discovery he was also involved, as acknowledged in Gell-Mann and Low's paper. *L. Ts. Adzhemyan, N. V. Antonov and A. N. Vasiliev; ''The Field Theoretic Renormalization Group in Fully Developed Turbulence''; Gordon and Breach, 1999. . *Vasil'ev, A. N.; ''The field theoretic renormalization group in critical behavior theory and stochastic dynamics''; Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2004. (Self-contained treatment of renormalization group applications with complete computations); * Zinn-Justin, Jean (2002). ''Quantum field theory and critical phenomena'', Oxford, Clarendon Press (2002), (an exceptionally solid and thorough treatise on both topics); * Zinn-Justin, Jean: ''Renormalization and renormalization group: From the discovery of UV divergences to the concept of effective field theories'', in: de Witt-Morette C., Zuber J.-B. (eds), Proceedings of the NATO ASI on ''Quantum Field Theory: Perspective and Prospective'', June 15–26, 1998, Les Houches, France, Kluwer Academic Publishers, NATO ASI Series C 530, 375-388 (1999)
SBN SBN can mean: * Naval Aircraft Factory SBN, a scout/torpedo bomber from the mid-1930s * Sehar Broadcasting Network, a television channel in Pakistan * Servizio bibliotecario nazionale, the National Library Service of Italy * Small Business Network, ...
Full text available i
''PostScript''
* Kleinert, H. and Schulte Frohlinde, V; ''Critical Properties of 4-Theories''
World Scientific (Singapore, 2001)
Paperback ''. Full text available i
PDF
{{Industrial and applied mathematics Quantum field theory Statistical mechanics Scaling symmetries Mathematical physics