We combine two non-perturbative approaches, one based on the two-particle-irreducible (2PI) action, the other on the functional renormalization group (fRG), in an effort to develop new non-perturbative approximations for the field theoretical description of strongly coupled systems. In particular, we exploit the exact 2PI relations between the two-point and four-point functions in order to truncate the infinite hierarchy of equations of the functional renormalization group. The truncation is "exact" in two ways. First, the solution of the resulting flow equation is independent of the choice of the regulator. Second, this solution coincides with that of the 2PI equations for the two-point and the four-point functions, for any selection of two-skeleton diagrams characterizing a so-called $Φ$-derivable approximation. The transformation of the equations of the 2PI formalism into flow equations offers new ways to solve these equations in practice, and provides new insight on certain aspects of their renormalization. It also opens the possibility to develop approximation schemes going beyond the strict $Φ$-derivable ones, as well as new truncation schemes for the fRG hierarchy.
We study the renormalization of the O(N) model using the auxiliary field formalism (Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation) in the 1/N expansion at finite temperature. We provide the general strategy of renormalization for arbitrary order, and make calculation up to next-to-leading order. We show that renormalization is possible for any values of the condensates, prove the temperature independence of the counterterms and determine the cutoff dependence of the first nontrivial counterterm parts.
We study renormalization of Coulomb-gauge QCD within the Lagrangian second-order formalism. We derive a Ward identity and the Zinn-Justin equation, and, with the help of the latter, we give a proof of algebraic renormalizability of the theory. Through diagrammatic analyses, we show that, in the strict Coulomb gauge, g^2D^{00} is invariant under renormalization. (D^{00} is the time-time component of the gluon propagator.)
We employ projection operator techniques in Hilbert space to derive a continuous sequence of effective Hamiltonians which describe the dynamics on successively larger length scales. We show for the case of ϕ^4 theory that the masses and couplings in these effective Hamiltonians vary in accordance with 1-loop renormalization group equations. This is evidence for an intimate connection between Wilson's renormalization and the venerable Bloch-Feshbach formalism.
The AdS/CFT correspondence is developed from classical solutions on AdS_5 with two boundaries. The corresponding limits and the reduction of degrees of freedom are discussed, as well as the required renormalization on the field theory side. The Hamiltonian first-order approach towards the solution of coupled gravitational/matter equations of motion is introduced, and the RG interpretation is exposed. Finally we discuss a recent approach towards a naturally vanishing cosmological constant which is based on the AdS/RG correspondence.
We study how to compute the operator product expansion coefficients in the exact renormalization group formalism. After discussing possible strategies, we consider some examples explicitly, within the $ε$-expansions, for the Wilson-Fisher fixed points of the real scalar theory in $d=4-ε$ dimensions and the Lee-Yang model in $d=6-ε$ dimensions. Finally we discuss how our formalism may be extended beyond perturbation theory.
We discuss a general method of constructing the products of composite operators using the exact renormalization group formalism. Considering mainly the Wilson action at a generic fixed point of the renormalization group, we give an argument for the validity of short distance expansions of operator products. We show how to compute the expansion coefficients by solving differential equations, and test our method with some simple examples.
Energy-dependent Green's functions for the two and three dimensional $δ$-function plus harmonic oscillator potential systems are derived by incorporating the renormalization and the self-adjoint extension into the Green's function formalism, respectively. It is shown that both methods yield an identical Green's function if a certain relation between the self-adjoint extension parameter and the renormalized coupling constant is imposed.
In the paper, within the background-field method, the structure of renormalizations is studied as for Yang-Mills fields interacting with a multiplet of spinor fields. By extending the Faddeev-Popov action with extra fields and parameters, one is allowed to establish the multiplicative character of the renormalizability. The renormalization of the physical parameters is shown to be gauge-independent.
As a check of the first massive integrated vertex operator in the pure spinor formalism constructed in arXiv:1802.04486, we compute the one loop 2-point function of the stable non-BPS massive states in SO(32) heterotic string theory. This allows us to compute the one loop renormalized mass of these states using the pure spinor formalism. Our results are in agreement with the corresponding results obtained by Sen using the RNS formalism. This provides an instance of the equivalence between the RNS and the pure spinor formalism for the massive states at loop level.
Using the exact renormalization group (ERG) formalism, we study the gauge invariant composite operators in QED. Gauge invariant composite operators are introduced as infinitesimal changes of the gauge invariant Wilson action. We examine the dependence on the gauge fixing parameter of both the Wilson action and gauge invariant composite operators. After defining ``gauge fixing parameter independence,'' we show that any gauge independent composite operators can be made ``gauge fixing parameter independent'' by appropriate normalization. As an application, we give a concise but careful proof of t…
We report a rigorous quantization of topological quantum mechanics on $\mathbb{R}_{\geqslant 0}$ and $\mathbf{I}= [0, 1]$ in perturbative BV-BFV formalism. Costello's homotopic renormalization is extended, and incorporated in our construction. Moreover, BV quantization of the same model studied in our previous work is derived from the BV-BFV quantization, leading to a comparison between different interpretations of ''state'' in these two frameworks.
In the context of algebraic renormalization, the extended antifield formalism is used to derive the general forms of the anomaly consistency condition and of the Callan-Symanzik equation for generic gauge theories. A local version of the latter is used to derive sufficient conditions for the vanishing of beta functions associated to terms whose integrands are invariant only up to a divergence for an arbitrary non trivial non anomalous symmetry of the Lagrangian. These conditions are independent of power counting restrictions and of the form of the gauge fixation.
Given a Wilson action invariant under global chiral transformations, we can construct current composite operators in terms of the Wilson action. The short distance singularities in the multiple products of the current operators are taken care of by the exact renormalization group. The Ward-Takahashi identity is compatible with the finite momentum cutoff of the Wilson action. The exact renormalization group and the Ward-Takahashi identity together determine the products. As a concrete example, we study the Gaussian fixed-point Wilson action of the chiral fermions to construct the products of cu…
Background field method is used to perform renormalization group transformations for Schrödinger equation in QCD. The dependence of the ground state wave functional on rapidly oscillating fields is found.
We present the Mathematica application DoFun which allows to derive Dyson-Schwinger equations and renormalization group flow equations for n-point functions in a simple manner. DoFun offers several tools which considerably simplify the derivation of these equations from a given physical action. We discuss the application of DoFun by means of two different types of quantum field theories, namely a bosonic O(N) theory and the Gross-Neveu model.
Renormalization group transformations for Schrödinger equation are performed in $ϕ^4$ and in Yang-Mills theories. The dependence of the ground state wave functional on rapidly oscillating fields is found. For Yang-Mills theory, this dependence restricts a possible form of variational ansatz compatible with asymptotic freedom.
We discuss the $\{ β\}$-expansion for renormalization group invariant quantities tracing this expansion to the different contractions of the corresponding incomplete BPHZ $R$-operation. All of the coupling renormalizations, which follow from these contractions, should be taken into account for the $\{ β\}$-expansion. We illustrate this feature considering the nonsinglet Adler function $D^\text{NS}$ in the third order of perturbation. We propose a generalization of the $\{ β\}$-expansion for the renormalization group covariant quantities -- the $\{ β,γ\}$-expansion.
Nonthermal fixed points represent basic properties of quantum field theories, in addition to vacuum or thermal equilibrium fixed points. The functional renormalization group on a closed real-time path provides a common framework for their description. For the example of an O(N) symmetric scalar theory it reveals a hierarchy of fixed point solutions, with increasing complexity from vacuum and thermal equilibrium to nonequilibrium.
We study to one-loop order the renormalization of QCD in the Coulomb gauge using the Hamitonian formalism. Divergences occur which might require counter-terms outside the Hamiltonian formalism, but they can be cancelled by a redefinition of the Yang-Mills electric field.
The existence of an U(2)xU(2)-symmetric fixed point in the chiral linear sigma model is confirmed using the Functional Renormalization Group (FRG). Its stability properties and the implications for the order of the chiral phase transition of two-flavor quantum chromodynamics (QCD) are discussed. Furthermore, several technical conclusions are drawn from the comparison with the results of resummed loop expansions.
We compute the low-energy limit of the $O(4)$-symmetric quark-meson model as an effective field theory for Quantum Chromodynamics within the Functional Renormalization Group (FRG) approach. In particular, we analyze the renormalization group flow of momentum-dependent pion self-interactions beyond the local potential approximation. The numerical results for these couplings obtained from the FRG are confronted with a recent tree-level study. Additionally, their effect on the wave-function renormalization and the curvature masses is investigated.
We analyze the renormalization of wave functionals and energy eigenvalues in field theory. A discussion of the structure of the renormalization group equation for a general Hamiltonian system is also given.
We develop a general formalism to describe the Renormalization Group Flow of Schur indices and fusion algebras of BPS line defects in four-dimensional ${\cal N}=2$ Supersymmetric Quantum Field Theories. The formalism includes and extends known results about the Seiberg-Witten description of these structures. Another application of the formalism is to describe the spectrum of BPS partices of ${\mathcal N}=2$ gauge theories with matter in terms of the spectrum of pure ${\mathcal N}=2$ gauge theories. Applications to the theory of quantum groups and to the quantization of cluster varieties are al…
We study quenched disorder in strongly correlated systems via holography, focusing on the thermodynamic effects of mild electric disorder. Disorder is introduced through a random potential which is assumed to self-average on macroscopic scales. Studying the flow of this distribution with energy scale leads us to develop a holographic functional renormalization scheme. We test this scheme by computing thermodynamic quantities and confirming that the Harris criterion for relevance, irrelevance or marginality of quenched disorder holds.
We define a one-particle irreducible (1PI) Wilson action in the gradient flow exact renormalization group (GFERG) formalism as the Legendre transform of a Wilson action. We consider quantum electrodynamics in particular, and show that the GFERG flow equation preserves the invariance of the 1PI Wilson action (excluding the gauge-fixing term) under the \emph{conventional\/} $U(1)$ gauge transformation. This is in contrast to the invariance of the original Wilson action under a modified $U(1)$ gauge transformation. The global chiral transformation also takes the \emph{conventional\/} form for the…
The gauge dependence problem of the effective action for general gauge theories in the framework of a modified functional renormalization group approach proposed recently is studied. It is shown that the effective action remains gauge-dependent on-shell.
The renormalization group flow is presented for the two-dimensional sine-Gordon model within the framework of the functional renormalization group method by including the wave-function renormalization constant. The Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinski type phase structure is recovered as the interpolating scaling law between two competing IR attractive area of the global renormalization group flow.
We prove that the functional renormalization group flow equation admits a perturbative solution and show explicitly the scheme transformation that relates it to the standard schemes of perturbation theory. We then define a universal scheme within the functional renormalization group.
In the framework of the functional renormalization group (FRG) we present a simple truncation scheme for the computation of real-time mesonic n-point functions, consistent with the derivative expansion of the effective action. Via analytic continuation on the level of the flow equations we perform calculations of mesonic spectral functions in the scalar O(N) model, which we use as an exploratory example. By investigating the renormalization-scale dependence of the 2-point functions we shed light on the nature of the sigma meson, whose spectral properties are predominantly of dynamical origin.
Within the two-dimensional repulsive t-t'-Hubbard model, an attractive coupling in the d-wave pairing channel is induced by antiferromagnetic fluctuations. We investigate this coupling using functional renormalization group equations. The momentum dependent d-wave coupling can be bosonized by the use of scale dependent field transformations. We propose an effective coarse grained model for the Hubbard model which is based on the exchange of antiferromagnetic and d-wave collective bosons.
This paper presents a complete algebraic analysis of the renormalizability of the $d=4$ operator $F^2_{μν}$ in the Gribov-Zwanziger (GZ) formalism as well as in the Refined Gribov-Zwanziger (RGZ) version. The GZ formalism offers a way to deal with gauge copies in the Landau gauge. We explicitly show that $F^2_{μν}$ mixes with other $d=4$ gauge variant operators, and we determine the mixing matrix $Z$ to all orders, thereby only using algebraic arguments. The mixing matrix allows us to uncover a renormalization group invariant including the operator $F^2_{μν}$. With this renormalization group i…
We study the quantum gravitational system coupled to a charged scalar, Dirac fermions, and electromagnetic fields. We use the "exact" or "functional" renormalization group equation to derive the effective action $Γ_0$ by integrating the flow equation from the ultraviolet scale down to $k=0$. The resulting effective action consists of local terms and nonlocal terms with unique coefficients.
In this paper we propose a method to study the Functional Renormalization Group at finite chemical potential. The method consists of mapping the FRG equations within the Fermi surface into a differential equation defined on a rectangle with zero boundary conditions. To solve this equation we use an expansion of the potential in a harmonic basis. With this method we determined the phase diagram of a simple Yukawa-type model; as expected, the bosonic fluctuations decrease the strength of the transition.
Deriving accurate energy density functional is one of the central problems in condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and quantum chemistry. We propose a novel method to deduce the energy density functional by combining the idea of the functional renormalization group and the Kohn-Sham scheme in density functional theory. The key idea is to solve the renormalization group flow for the effective action decomposed into the mean-field part and the correlation part. Also, we propose a simple practical method to quantify the uncertainty associated with the truncation of the correlation part. By …
In this paper we study the Nielsen identity for the supersymmetric Chern-Simons-matter model in the superfield formalism, in three spacetime dimensions. The Nielsen identity is essential to understand the gauge invariance of the symmetry breaking mechanism, and it is calculated by using the BRST invariance of the model. We discuss the technical difficulties in applying this identity to the complete effective superpotential, but we show how we can study in detail the gauge independence of one part of the effective superpotential, $K_{eff}$. We calculate the renormalization group functions of th…
The most convenient tool to study the renormalization of a Lagrangian field theory invariant under non linear local or global symmetries is the proper solution to the master equation of the extended antifield formalism. It is shown that, from the knowledge of the BRST cohomology, it is possible to explicitly construct a further extension of the formalism containing all the observables of the theory and satisfying an extended master equation, with some of the features of the quantum Batalin-Vilkovisky master equation already present at the classical level. This solution has the remarkable prope…
We study the supersymmetric N=(2,2) Wess-Zumino model in two dimensions with the functional renormalization group. At leading order in the supercovariant derivative expansion we recover the nonrenormalization theorem which states that the superpotential has no running couplings. Beyond leading order the renormalization of the bare mass is caused by a momentum dependent wave function renormalization. To deal with the partial differential equations we have developed a numerical toolbox called FlowPy. For weak couplings the quantum corrections to the bare mass found in lattice simulations is repr…
Motivated by the construction of the cMERA for interacting field theories, we derive a non-perturbative functional differential equation for wave functionals in scalar field theories from the exact renormalization group equation. We check the validity of the equation using the perturbation theory. We calculate the wave functional up to the first-order perturbation and verify that it satisfies the equation.
The $SU(2)_A \times U(2)_V$-symmetric chiral linear sigma model in the presence of the axial anomaly is studied in the local-potential approximation of the Functional Renormalization Group (FRG). The renormalization group (RG) flow is investigated in a truncation which reproduces recent results for the $U(2)_A \times U(2)_V$-symmetric model in the limit of vanishing axial anomaly strength. We search for the conjectured O(4) fixed point in the presence of the $U(1)_A$ anomaly and analyze its stability properties.
We study higher derivative extension of the functional renormalization group (FRG). We consider FRG equations for a scalar field that consist of terms with higher functional derivatives of the effective action and arbitrary cutoff functions. We show that the epsilon expansion around the Wilson-Fisher fixed point is indeed reproduced by the local potential approximation of the FRG equations.
We propose an approach to describe Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (SSB) that does not rely on the order parameter dependent free energy (Landau theory). We use the Functional Renormalization Group (FRG) evolution of the explicitly broken theory, using a truncation scheme that is compatible with the Ward identities. To represent the symmetry breaking, we propose to use the "Ward ratio" which is zero in the symmetric phase and unity in the broken phase. In this approach a unified scale evolution of the effective potential is applicable in both phases. It is peculiar that the scale evolution is ac…
Using functional methods and the exact renormalization group we derive Ward identities for the Anderson impurity model. In particular, we present a non-perturbative proof of the Yamada-Yosida identities relating certain coefficients in the low-energy expansion of the self-energy to thermodynamic particle number and spin susceptibilities of the impurity. Our proof underlines the relation of the Yamada-Yosida identities to the U(1) x U(1) symmetry associated with particle number and spin conservation in a magnetic field.
Equivalence criteria are established for an effective Yukawa-type theory of composite fields representing two-particle fermion bound states with the original "microscopic" theory of interacting fermions based on the spectral decomposition of the 2-to-2 fermion scattering amplitude. Functional renormalisation group equations of the effective theory are derived exploiting relations expressing the equivalence. The effect of truncating the spectral decomposition is investigated quantitatively on the example of the non-relativistic bound states of two oppositely charged fermi particles.
We show an application of the functional-renormalization-group aided density functional theory to the homogeneous electron gas with arbitrary spin polarization, which gives the energy density functional in the local spin density approximation. The correlation energy per particle is calculated at arbitrary Wigner-Seitz radius $ r_{\rm s} $ and spin polarization $ ζ$. In the high-density region, our result shows good agreement with Monte Carlo (MC) data. The agreement with MC data is better in the case of small spin polarization, while the discrepancy increases as the spin polarization increases…
The flow equations of the Functional Renormalization Group are applied to the O(N)-symmetric scalar theory, for N=1 and N=4, in four Euclidean dimensions, d=4, to determine the effective potential and the renormalization function of the field in the broken phase. In our numerical analysis, the infrared limit, corresponding to the vanishing of the running momentum scale in the equations, is approached to obtain the physical values of the parameters by extrapolation. In the N=4 theory a non-perturbatively large value of the physical renormalization of the longitudinal component of the field is o…
This paper aims at using the functional renormalization group formalism to study the equilibrium states of a stochastic process described by a quench--disordered multilinear Langevin equation. Such an equation characterizes the evolution of a time-dependent $N$-vector $q(t)=\{q_1(t),\cdots q_N(t)\}$ and is traditionally encountered in the dynamical description of glassy systems at and out of equilibrium through the so-called Glauber model. From the connection between Langevin dynamics and quantum mechanics in imaginary time, we are able to coarse-grain the path integral of the problem in the F…
We reanalyze the construction of the gravitational functional renormalization group equation tailored to the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner formulation emphasizing its connection to the covariant formulation. The results obtained from projecting the renormalization group flow onto the Einstein-Hilbert action are reviewed in detail and we provide a novel example illustrating how the formalism may be connected to the Causal Dynamical Triangulations approach to quantum gravity.
We employ the functional renormalization group approach formulated on the Schwinger-Keldysh contour to calculate real-time correlation functions in scalar field theories. We provide a detailed description of the formalism, discuss suitable truncation schemes for real-time calculations as well as the numerical procedure to self-consistently solve the flow equations for the spectral function. Subsequently, we discuss the relations to other perturbative and non-perturbative approaches to calculate spectral functions, and present a detailed comparison and benchmark in $d=0+1$ dimensions.
We present first results on the calculation of fermionic spectral functions from analytically continued flow equations within the Functional Renormalization Group approach. Our method is based on the same analytic continuation from imaginary to real frequencies that was developed and used previously for bosonic spectral functions. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the method also for fermionic correlations we apply it here to the real-time quark propagator in the quark-meson model and calculate the corresponding quark spectral functions in the vacuum.
FlowPy is a numerical toolbox for the solution of partial differential equations encountered in Functional Renormalization Group equations. This toolbox compiles flow equations to fast machine code and is able to handle coupled systems of flow equations with full momentum dependence, which furthermore may be given implicitly.
The temperature dependence of d-wave superconducting order for two dimensional fermions with d-wave attraction is investigated by means of the functional renormalization group with partial bosonization. Below the critical temperature T_c we find superconductivity, a gap in the electron propagator and a temperature dependent anomalous dimension. At T_c the renormalized "superfluid density" jumps and the approach to T_c from above is characterized by essential scaling. These features are characteristic for a phase transition of the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) type.
We investigate the order of the color superconducting phase transition using the functional renormalization group approach. We analyze the Ginzburg-Landau effective theory of color superconductivity and more generic scalar $SU(N_c)$ gauge theories by calculating the $β$ function of the gauge coupling in arbitrary dimension $d$ based on two different regularization schemes. We find that in $d=3$, due to gluon fluctuation effects, the $β$ function never admits an infrared fixed point solution. This indicates that, unlike the ordinary superconducting transition, color superconductivity can only s…
We investigate the background field method with the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism, to generalize known results, study parametric completeness and achieve a better understanding of several properties. In particular, we study renormalization and gauge dependence to all orders. Switching between the background field approach and the usual approach by means of canonical transformations, we prove parametric completeness without making use of cohomological theorems, namely show that if the starting classical action is sufficiently general all divergences can be subtracted by means of parameter redefi…
Known results on two-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED_2) have been used to study the dependence of functional renormalization group equations on renormalization schemes and approximations applied for its bosonized version. It is demonstrated that the singularity of flow equations can be avoided in the optimized and power-law schemes for the bosonized model and the drawback of renormalization on bosonization is shown: it is indicated that renormalization of QED_2 possibly requires interaction terms corresponding to higher frequency modes of its bosonized version.
The dependence of function renormalization group equation on regulators is investigated. A parameter is introduced to control the suppression of regulators. Functional renormalization group equations will become regulator-independent if this newly introduced parameter is sent to infinity in the end of calculation. One-loop renormalization flow equations of QCD are derived. The novelty is that both the coupling running equation and the mass running equation are mass-dependent. Different flow patterns are explored. A mechanism for non-occurrence of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking is arrived a…
We study a mathematical relationship between holographic Wilsonian renormalization group and stochastic quantization framework. We extend the original proposal given in arXiv:1209.2242 to interacting theories. The original proposal suggests that fictitious time(or stochastic time) evolution of stochastic 2-point correlation function will be identical to the radial evolution of the double trace operator of certain classes of holographic models, which are free theories in AdS space. We study holographic gravity models with interactions in AdS space and establish a map between the holographic ren…
The functional-renormalization-group aided density-functional theory (FRG-DFT) is applied to the two-dimensional homogeneous electron gas (2DHEG). The correlation energy of the 2DHEG is derived as a function of the Wigner-Seitz radius $ r_{\rm s} $ directly. We find that our correlation energy completely reproduces the exact behavior at the high-density limit. For finite density, the result of FRG-DFT shows good agreement with the Monte Carlo (MC) results in the high-density region, although the discrepancy between FRG-DFT and MC results becomes larger as the system becomes more dilute. Our st…
We investigate multicritical phenomena in O(N)+O(M)-models by means of nonperturbative renormalization group equations. This constitutes an elementary building block for the study of competing orders in a variety of physical systems. To identify possible multicritical points in phase diagrams with two ordered phases, we compute the stability of isotropic and decoupled fixed point solutions from scaling potentials of single-field models. We verify the validity of Aharony's scaling relation within the scale-dependent derivative expansion of the effective average action. We discuss implications f…
