A new functional renormalization group syudy of universality classes with O(N) symmetry

Abstract

The functional renormalization group (FRG) is a powerful tool that has facilitated the investigation of various strongly interacting theories, encompassing systems characterized by both bosonic and fermionic variables. Specifically, this project focuses on the analysis of theories with O(N) symmetry with bosonic scalar fields. These theories are of particular interest due to their broad applicability in real physical systems. For example, Z2 symmetry (the O(1) model) describes the well-known Ising universality class, which in turn models the liquid-gas transition. On the other hand, the O(2) model belongs to the universality class of the XY model, used to describe the transition from fluid to superfluid in 4 He, while the O(3) model, known as the Heisenberg model, describes the ferromagnetic transition in isotropic materials. Finally the O(0) model is related to the self-avoiding walk (SAW). To characterize these theories, various methods have been implemented within the framework of the renormalization group. Perturbation theory has been applied since the early days of the subject, specifically in the form of the ε-expansion, which has reached high loop order in recent years. Alternatively, a non-perturbative approach can be chosen, which is known as the non-perturbative renormalization group (NPRG). Within the NPRG, there are several approximation schemes, with the derivative expansion being particularly noteworthy. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to calculate the critical exponents, which define the given universality class. The standard non-perturbative method involves solving an equation that depends on a regulator or cut-off, which represents one of the main challenges of this approach. Although the regulators are designed so that the theory does not depend on them at the scales of interest, the results for the critical exponents can vary depending on the regulator used once approximations are made. In this project, we propose an approach that eliminates the need for an explicit mass cut-off significantly simplifying the calculation of critical exponents while mitigating the regulator dependence of the results. In particular, we show that it is possible to use dimensional regularization (DR) beyond the ε-expansion in the context of RG calculations of critical properties. Based on this we propose a new functional RG scheme called Functional Dimensional Regularization (FDR) and apply it to the O(N) model in three dimension, finding excellent agreement with state-of-the-art computations