We consider the approach describing glass formation in liquids as a progressive trapping in an exponentially large number of metastable states. To go beyond the mean-field setting, we provide a real-space renormalization group (RG) analysis of the associated replica free-energy functional. The present approximation yields in finite dimensions an ideal glass transition similar to that found in mean field. However, we find that along the RG flow the properties associated with metastable glassy states, such as the configurational entropy, are only defined up to a characteristic length scale that diverges as one approaches the ideal glass transition. The critical exponents characterizing the vicinity of the transition are the usual ones associated with a first-order discontinuity fixed point.
Correlators describing the vulcanization transition are constructed and explored via a renormalization group approach. This approach is based on a minimal model that accounts for the thermal motion of constituents and the quenched random constraints imposed on their motion by crosslinks. Critical exponents associated with the correlators are obtained near six dimensions, and found to equal those governing analogous entities in percolation theory. Some expectations for how the vulcanization transition is realized in two dimensions, developed with H. E. Castillo, are discussed.
We present a real space renormalization group scheme for the problem of random walks in a random environment on a strip, which includes one-dimensional random walk in random environment with bounded non-nearest-neighbor jumps. We show that the model renormalizes to an effective one-dimensional random walk problem with nearest-neighbor jumps and conclude that Sinai scaling is valid in the recurrent case, while in the sub-linear transient phase, the displacement grows as a power of the time.
We investigate the directed random walk on hierarchic trees. Two cases are investigated: random variables on deterministic trees with a continuous branching, and random variables on the trees constructed trough the random branching process. We derive renormalization group (partial differential) equations for the branching models with binomial, Poisson and compound Poisson distributions of random variables on the links of tree. These renormaliation group equations are new class of reaction-diffusion equations in 1-dimension.
The Shannon and the Renyi entropies of the ground state wavefunction in the pure and in the random quantum Ising chain are studied via the self-dual Fernandez-Pacheco real-space renormalization procedure. In particular, we analyze the critical behavior of the leading extensive term at the quantum phase transition : the derivative with respect to the control parameter is found to be logarithmically divergent in the pure case, and to display a cusp singularity in the random case. This cusp singularity for the random case is also derived via the Strong Disorder Renormalization approach.
We introduce variants of the Ma-Dasgupta renormalization-group approach for random quantum spin chains, in which the energy-scale is reduced by decimation built on either perturbative or non-perturbative principles. In one non-perturbative version of the method, we require the exact invariance of the lowest gaps, while in a second class of perturbative Ma-Dasgupta techniques, different decimation rules are utilized. For the S=1 random antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain, both type of methods provide the same type of disorder dependent phase diagram, which is in agreement with density-matrix ren…
Extending the usual Ginzburg-Landau theory for the random-field Ising model, the possibility of dimensional reduction is reconsidered. A renormalization group for the probability distribution of magnetic impurities is applied. New parameters corresponding to the extra $ϕ^4$ coupling constants in the replica Hamiltonian are introduced. Although they do not affect the critical phenomena near the upper critical dimension, they can when dimensions are lowered.
The large distance behaviors of the random field and random anisotropy O(N) models are studied with the functional renormalization group in 4-εdimensions. The random anisotropy Heisenberg (N=3) model is found to have a phase with the infinite correlation radius at low temperatures and weak disorder. The correlation function of the magnetization obeys a power law < m(x) m(y) >\sim |x-y|^{-0.62ε}. The magnetic susceptibility diverges at low fields as χ\sim H^{-1+0.15ε}. In the random field O(N) model the correlation radius is found to be finite at the arbitrarily weak disorder for any N>3. The r…
With the help of the replica exchange Monte Carlo method and the improved Monte Carlo renormalization-group scheme, we investigate over a wide area in the phase diagram of the Gaussian random field Ising model on the simple cubic lattice. We found that the phase transition at a weak random field belongs to the same universality class as the zero-temperature phase transition. We also present a possible scenario for the replica symmetry breaking transition.
We study by the perturbative Functional Renormalization Group (FRG) the Random Field and Random Anisotropy O(N) models near $d=4$, the lower critical dimension of ferromagnetism. The long-distance physics is controlled by zero-temperature fixed points at which the renormalized effective action is nonanalytic. We obtain the beta functions at 2-loop order, showing that despite the nonanalytic character of the renormalized effective action, the theory is perturbatively renormalizable at this order. The physical results obtained at 2-loop level, most notably concerning the breakdown of dimensional…
We study the long-distance behavior of the O(N) model in the presence of random fields and random anisotropies correlated as ~1/x^{d-sigma} for large separation x using the functional renormalization group. We compute the fixed points and analyze their regions of stability within a double epsilon=d-4 and sigma expansion. We find that the long-range disorder correlator remains analytic but generates short-range disorder whose correlator develops the usual cusp. This allows us to obtain the phase diagrams in (d,sigma,N) parameter space and compute the critical exponents to first order in epsilon…
The tensor renormalization-group method, developed by Levin and Nave, brings systematic improvability to the position-space renormalization-group method and yields essentially exact results for phase diagrams and entire thermodynamic functions. The method, previously used on systems with no quenched randomness, is extended in this study to systems with quenched randomness. Local magnetizations and correlation functions as a function of spin separation are calculated as tensor products subject to renormalization-group transformation. Phase diagrams are extracted from the long-distance behavior …
We investigate S=1 antiferromagnetic quantum spin chain, whose exchange couplings are strongly disordered. By the real-space renomalization group method, introduced by Ma, Dasgupta, and Hu, the renormalization group flows are analyzed numerically in a plain of the anisotoropy of the exchange coupling vs. the staggered magnetic field. As the result, the Heisenberg point, which has a zero average of the exchange coupling anisotropy, is specified as the unstable fixed point against the anisotropy.
The transverse-field Ising models with random exchange interactions in finite dimensions are investigated by means of a real-space renormalization-group method. The scheme yields the exact values of the critical point and critical exponent nu in one dimension and some previous results in the case of random ferromagnetic interactions are reproduced in two and three dimensions. We apply the scheme to spin glasses in transverse fields in two and three dimensions, which have not been analyzed very extensively. The phase diagrams and the critical exponent nu are obtained and evidence for the existe…
We investigate the explicit renormalization group for fermionic field theoretic representation of two-dimensional random bond Ising model with long-range correlated disorder. We show that a new fixed point appears by introducing a long-range correlated disorder. Such as the one has been observed in previous works for the bosonic ($ϕ^4$) description. We have calculated the correlation length exponent and the anomalous scaling dimension of fermionic fields at this fixed point. Our results are in agreement with the extended Harris criterion derived by Weinrib and Halperin.
In this paper, we introduce a real-space renormalization transformation for random spin systems on 2D lattices. The general method is formulated for random systems and results from merging two well known real space renormalization techniques, namely the strong disorder renormalization technique (SDRT) and the contractor renormalization (CORE). We analyze the performance of the method on the 2D random transverse field Ising model (RTFIM).
The Renormalization Group (RG) methods are still far from being completely understood in quenched disordered systems. In order to gain insight into the nature of the phase transition of these systems, it is common to investigate simple models. In this work we study a real-space RG transformation on the Dyson hierarchical lattice with a random field, which led to a reconstruction of the RG flow and to an evaluation of the critical exponents of the model at T = 0. We show that this method gives very accurate estimations of the critical exponents, by comparing our results with the ones obtained b…
We present a detailed analysis of glass transitions induced by pinning particles at random from an equilibrium configuration. We first develop a mean-field analysis based on the study of p-spin spherical disordered models and then obtain the three dimensional critical behavior by the Migdal-Kadanoff real space renormalization group method. We unveil the important physical differences with the case in which particles are pinned from a random (or very high temperature) configuration. We contrast the pinning particles approach to the ones based on biasing dynamical trajectories with respect to th…
We consider the singularities of the zero temperature renormalization group flow for random elastic manifolds. When starting from small scales, this flow goes through two particular points $l^{*}$ and $l_{c}$, where the average value of the random squared potential $<U^{2}>$ turnes negative ($l^{*}$) and where the fourth derivative of the potential correlator becomes infinite at the origin ($l_{c}$). The latter point sets the scale where simple perturbation theory breaks down as a consequence of the competition between many metastable states. We show that under physically well defined circumst…
We use the Real Space Renormalization Group (RSRG) method to study extreme value statistics for a variety of Brownian motions, free or constrained such as the Brownian bridge, excursion, meander and reflected bridge, recovering some standard results, and extending others. We apply the same method to compute the distribution of extrema of Bessel processes. We briefly show how the continuous time random walk (CTRW) corresponds to a non standard fixed point of the RSRG transformation.
We consider the properties of vibrational dynamics on random networks, with random masses and spring constants. The localization properties of the eigenstates contrast greatly with the Laplacian case on these networks. We introduce several real-space renormalization techniques which can be used to describe this dynamics on general networks, drawing on strong disorder techniques developed for regular lattices. The renormalization group is capable of elucidating the localization properties, and provides, even for specific network instances, a fast approximation technique for determining the spec…
We have developed a very efficient numerical algorithm of the strong disorder renormalization group method to study the critical behaviour of the random transverse-field Ising model, which is a prototype of random quantum magnets. With this algorithm we can renormalize an N-site cluster within a time N*log(N), independently of the topology of the graph and we went up to N~4*10^6. We have studied regular lattices with dimension D<=4 as well as Erdos-Renyi random graphs, which are infinite dimensional objects. In all cases the quantum critical behaviour is found to be controlled by an infinite d…
The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) has been extended to study quantum phase transitions on random graphs of fixed connectivity. As a relevant example, we have analysed the random Ising model in a transverse field. If the couplings are random, the number of retained states remains reasonably low even for large sizes. The resulting quantum spin-glass transition has been traced down for a few disorder realizations, through the careful measurement of selected observables: spatial correlations, entanglement entropy, energy gap and spin-glass susceptibility, among others.
Novel randomness-induced disordered ground states in two-dimensional (2D) quantum spin systems have been attracting much interest. For quantitative analysis of such random quantum spin systems, one of the most promising numerical approaches is the tensor-network strong-disorder renormalization group (tSDRG), which was basically established for one-dimensional (1D) systems. In this paper, we propose a possible improvement of its algorithm toward 2D random spin systems, focusing on a generating process of the tree network structure of tensors, and precisely examine their performances for the ran…
We develop the exact renormalization group approach as a way to evaluate the effective speed of propagation of a scalar wave in a medium with random inhomogeneities. We use the Martin-Siggia-Rose formalism to translate the problem into a non equilibrium field theory one, and then consider a sequence of models with a progressively lower infrared cutoff; in the limit where the cutoff is removed we recover the problem of interest. As a test of the formalism, we compute the effective dielectric constant of an homogeneous medium interspersed with randomly located, interpenetrating bubbles. Already …
When random quantum spin chains are submitted to some periodic Floquet driving, the eigenstates of the time-evolution operator over one period can be localized in real space. For the case of periodic quenches between two Hamiltonians (or periodic kicks), where the time-evolution operator over one period reduces to the product of two simple transfer matrices, we propose a Block-self-dual renormalization procedure to construct the localized eigenstates of the Floquet dynamics. We also discuss the corresponding Strong Disorder Renormalization procedure, that generalizes the RSRG-X procedure to co…
The spin-1/2 quantum Ising chain in a transverse random magnetic field is studied by means of the density-matrix renormalization group. The system evolves from an ordered to a paramagnetic state as the amplitude of the random field is increased. The dependence of the magnetization on a uniform magnetic field in the z direction and the spontaneous magnetization as a function of the amplitude of the transverse random magnetic field are determined. The behavior of the spin-spin correlation function both above and at criticality is studied. The scaling laws for magnetization and correlation functi…
We show that renormalization group (RG) theory applied to complex networks are useful to classify network topologies into universality classes in the space of configurations. The RG flow readily identifies a small-world/fractal transition by finding (i) a trivial stable fixed point of a complete graph, (ii) a non-trivial point of a pure fractal topology that is stable or unstable according to the amount of long-range links in the network, and (iii) another stable point of a fractal with short-cuts that exists exactly at the small-world/fractal transition. As a collateral, the RG technique expl…
The effect of dimerization on the random antiferomagnetic Heisenberg chain with spin 1/2 is studied by the density matrix renormalization group method. The ground state energy, the energy gap distribution and the string order parameter are calculated. Using the finite size scaling analysis, the dimerization dependence of the these quantities are obtained. The ground state energy gain due to dimerization behaves as $u^a$ with $a > 2$ where $u$ denotes the degree of dimerization, suggesting the absence of spin-Peierls instability. It is explicitly shown that the string long range order survives …
For arbitrary networks of random masses connected by random springs, we define a general strong disorder real-space renormalization (RG) approach that generalizes the procedures introduced previously by Hastings [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 148702 (2003)] and by Amir, Oreg and Imry [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 070601 (2010)] respectively. The principle is to eliminate iteratively the elementary oscillating mode of highest frequency associated with either a mass or a spring constant. To explain the accuracy of the strong disorder RG rules, we compare with the Aoki RG rules that are exact at fixed frequency.
We use a renormalization group method, similar to that developed for random spin chains, to infer information about the layouts of cellular wireless networks.
The real-space renormalization group (RG) treatment of random transverse-field Ising spin chains by Fisher ({\it Phys. Rev. B{\bf 51}, 6411 (1995)}) has been extended into the strongly ordered and strongly disordered Griffiths phases and asymptotically exact results are obtained. In the non-critical region the asymmetry of the renormalization of the couplings and the transverse fields is related to a non-linear quantum control parameter, $Δ$, which is a natural measure of the distance from the quantum critical point. $Δ$, which is found to stay invariant along the RG trajectories and has been …
We investigate the application of a perturbative renormalization group (RG) method to random antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains with arbitrary spin size. At zero temperature we observe that initial arbitrary probability distributions develop a singularity at J=0, for all values of spin S. When the RG method is extended to finite temperatures, without any additional assumptions, we find anomalous results for S >= 1. These results lead us to conclude that the perturbative scheme is not adequate to study random chains with S >= 1. Therefore a random singlet phase in its more restrictive definiti…
It is conjectured that the Haldane phase of the S=1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain and the $S=1/2$ ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic alternating Heisenberg chain is stable against any strength of randomness, because of imposed breakdown of translational symmetry. This conjecture is confirmed by the density matrix renormalization group calculation of the string order parameter and the energy gap distribution.
We consider the continuous-time random walk of a particle in a two-dimensional self-affine quenched random potential of Hurst exponent $H>0$. The corresponding master equation is studied via the strong disorder renormalization procedure introduced in Ref. [C. Monthus and T. Garel, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41 (2008) 255002]. We present numerical results on the statistics of the equilibrium time $t_{eq}$ over the disordered samples of a given size $L \times L$ for $10 \leq L \leq 80$. We find an 'Infinite disorder fixed point', where the equilibrium barrier $Γ_{eq} \equiv \ln t_{eq}$ scales as $…
Numerical Simulations of the random phase sine-Gordon model suffer from strong finite size effects preventing the non-Gaussian $\log^2 r$ component of the spatial correlator from following the universal infinite volume prediction. We show that a finite size prediction based on perturbative Renormalisation Group (RG) arguments agrees well with new high precision simulations for small coupling and close to the critical temperature.
This brief review introduces the method and application of real-space renormalization group to strongly disordered quantum systems. The focus is on recent applications of the strong disorder renormalization group to the physics of disordered-boson systems and the superfluid-insulator transition in one dimension. The fact that there is also a well understood weak disorder theory for this problem allows to illustrate what aspects of the physics change at strong disorder. In particular the strong disorder RG analysis suggests that the transitions at weak disorder and strong disorder belong to dis…
In this work we formulate the nonequilibrium dynamical renormalization group (ndRG). The ndRG represents a general renormalization-group scheme for the analytical description of the real-time dynamics of complex quantum many-body systems. In particular, the ndRG incorporates time as an additional scale which turns out to be important for the description of the long-time dynamics. It can be applied to both translational invariant and disordered systems. As a concrete application we study the real-time dynamics after a quench between two quantum critical points of different universality classes.…
We introduce a simple, exactly solvable strong-randomness renormalization group (RG) model for the many-body localization (MBL) transition in one dimension. Our approach relies on a family of RG flows parametrized by the asymmetry between thermal and localized phases. We identify the physical MBL transition in the limit of maximal asymmetry, reflecting the instability of MBL against rare thermal inclusions. We find a critical point that is localized with power-law distributed thermal inclusions. The typical size of critical inclusions remains finite at the transition, while the average size is…
The spin-1/2 quantum anisotropic XY spin chain in a transverse random magnetic field parallel to the z axis is numerically studied by means of the density-matrix renormalization group. The dependence of the spontaneous magnetization and the energy gap on both the strength of the random magnetic field and the factor of anisotropy is determined. The critical line for the order-disorder phase transition is obtained and the resulting phase diagram is drawn. Our results are compatible with the fact that models with different factors of anisotropy fall within the same universality class as the quant…
For the Many-Body-Localized phase of random Majorana models, a general Strong Disorder Real-Space Renormalization procedure known as RSRG-X [D. Pekker, G. Refael, E. Altman, E. Demler and V. Oganesyan, Phys. Rev. X 4, 011052 (2014)] is described to produce the whole set of excited states, via the iterative construction of the Local Integrals of Motion (LIOMs). The RG rules are then explicitly derived for arbitrary quadratic Hamiltonians (free-fermions models) and for the Kitaev chain with local interactions involving even numbers of consecutive Majorana fermions. The emphasis is put on the adv…
In this article, I give a pedagogical introduction and overview of percolation theory. Special emphasis will be put on the review of some of the most prominent of the algorithms that have been devised to study percolation numerically. At the central stage shall be the real-space renormalization group treatment of the percolation problem. As a rather novel application of this approach to percolation, I will review recent results using similar real-space renormalization ideas that have been applied to the quantum Hall transition.
We study the Kitaev spin ladder with random couplings by using the real-space renormalization group technique. This model is the minimum model in Kitaev systems that has conserved plaquette fluxes, and its quasi-one-dimensional geometry makes it possible to study the strong-disorder fixed points for both spin- and flux- excitation gaps. In the Ising limit, the behavior of the spin gap is consistent with the familiar random transverse-field Ising chain, but the flux gap is dominated by the y-coupling. In the XX limit, while the x- and y-couplings are renormalized simultaneously, the z-couplings…
Criticality in the class of disordered systems comprising the random-field Ising model (RFIM) and elastic manifolds in a random environment is controlled by zero-temperature fixed points that must be treated through a functional renormalization group. We apply the nonperturbative functional renormalization group approach that we have previously used to describe the RFIM in and out of equilibrium [Balog-Tarjus-Tissier, Phys. Rev. B 97, 094204 (2018)] to the simpler and by now well-studied case of the random elastic manifold model. We recover the main known properties, critical exponents and sca…
We propose an entanglement-based algorithm of the tensor-network strong-disorder renormalization group (tSDRG) method for quantum spin systems with quenched randomness. In contrast to the previous tSDRG algorithm based on the energy spectrum of renormalized block Hamiltonians, we directly utilizes the entanglement structure associated with the blocks to be renormalized. We examine accuracy of the new algorithm for the random antiferromagnetic Heisenberg models on the one-dimensional, triangular, and square lattices. We then find that the entanglement-based tSDRG achieves better accuracy than t…
We have developed a non-perturbative functional renormalization group approach for the random field O(N) model (RFO(N)M) 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 non-analytic nature of the zero-temperature fixed point controlling the critical behavior, non-analycity which is associated with the existence of many metastable states. We find that this non-analycity leads to critical exponents differing from the dimensional …
We consider the zero-temperature fixed points controlling the critical behavior of the $d$-dimensional random-field Ising, and more generally $O(N)$, models. We clarify the nature of these fixed points and their stability in the region of the $(N,d)$ plane where one passes from a critical behavior satisfying the $d\rightarrow d-2$ dimensional reduction to one where it breaks down due to the appearance of strong enough nonanalyticities in the functional dependence of the cumulants of the renormalized disorder. We unveil an intricate and unusual behavior.
We develop a time-dependent real-space renormalization-group approach which can be applied to Hamiltonians with time-dependent random terms. To illustrate the renormalization-group analysis, we focus on the quantum Ising Hamiltonian with random site- and time-dependent (adiabatic) transverse-field and nearest-neighbour exchange couplings. We demonstrate how the method works in detail, by calculating the off-critical flows and recovering the ground state properties of the Hamiltonian such as magnetization and correlation functions. The adiabatic time allows us to traverse the parameter space, r…
We argue that massless Dirac particles in two spatial dimensions with $1/r$ Coulomb repulsion and quenched random gauge field are described by a manifold of fixed points which can be accessed perturbatively in disorder and interaction strength, thereby confirming and extending the results of arXiv:0707.4171. At small interaction and small randomness, there is an infra-red stable fixed curve which merges with the strongly interacting infra-red unstable line at a critical endpoint, along which the dynamical critical exponent $z=1$.
The quantum critical behavior and the Griffiths-McCoy singularities of random quantum Ising ferromagnets are studied by applying a numerical implementation of the Ma-Dasgupta-Hu renormalization group scheme. We check the procedure for the analytically tractable one-dimensional case and apply our code to the quasi-one-dimensional double chain. For the latter we obtain identical critical exponents as for the simple chain implying the same universality class. Then we apply the method to the two-dimensional case for which we get estimates for the exponents that are compatible with a recent study i…
We consider the stochastic dynamics near zero-temperature of the random ferromagnetic Ising model on a Cayley tree of branching ratio $K$. We apply the Boundary Real Space Renormalization procedure introduced in our previous work (C. Monthus and T. Garel, J. Stat. Mech. P02037 (2013)) in order to derive the renormalization rule for dynamical barriers. We obtain that the probability distribution $P_n(B)$ of dynamical barrier for a subtree of $n$ generations converges for large $n$ towards some traveling-wave $P_n(B) \simeq P^*(B-nv) $, i.e. the width of the probability distribution remains fini…
We study the wetting transition and the directed polymer delocalization transition on diamond hierarchical lattices.These two phase transitions with frozen disorder correspond to the critical points of quadratic renormalizations of the partition function.(These exact renormalizations on diamond lattices can also be considered as approximate Migdal-Kadanoff renormalizations for hypercubic lattices). In terms of the rescaled partition function $z=Z/Z_{typ}$,we find that the critical point corresponds to a fixed point distribution with a power-law tail $P_c(z) \sim Φ(\ln z)/z^{1+μ}$ as $z \to +\i…
Using a numerical implementation of strong disorder renormalization group, we study the low-energy, long-distance properties of layers and bilayers of $S = 1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnets with different type of disorder: bond randomness, site and dimer dilution. Generally the systems exhibit an ordered and a disordered phase separated by a phase boundary on which the static critical exponents appear to be independent of bond randomness in the strong disorder regime, while the dynamical exponent is a continuous function of the bond disorder strength. The low-energy fixed points of the off-crit…
We review the theoretical description of the random field Ising and $O(N)$ models obtained from the functional renormalization group, either in its nonperturbative implementation or, in some limits, in perturbative implementations. The approach solves some of the questions concerning the critical behavior of random-field systems that have stayed pending for many years: What is the mechanism for the breakdown of dimensional reduction and the breaking of the underlying supersymmetry below $d=6$? Can one provide a theoretical computation of the critical exponents, including the exponent ψcharacte…
The infinite disorder fixed point of the random transverse-field Ising model is expected to control the critical behavior of a large class of random quantum and stochastic systems having an order parameter with discrete symmetry. Here we study the model on the square lattice with a very efficient numerical implementation of the strong disorder renormalization group method, which makes us possible to treat finite samples of linear size up to $L=2048$. We have calculated sample dependent pseudo-critical points and studied their distribution, which is found to be characterized by the same shift a…
We compute numerically the sequence of successive pinned configurations of an elastic line pulled quasi-statically by a spring in a random bond (RB) and random field (RF) potential. Measuring the fluctuations of the center of mass of the line allows to obtain the functional renormalization group (FRG) functions at the depinning transition. The universal form of the second cumulant Delta(u) is found to have a linear cusp at the origin, to be identical for RB and RF, different from the statics, and in good agreement with 2-loop FRG. The cusp is due to avalanches, which we visualize. Avalanches a…
