No Arabic abstract
The functional renormalization group (FRG) approach is a powerful tool for studies of a large variety of systems, ranging from statistical physics over the theory of the strong interaction to gravity. The practical application of this approach relies on the derivation of so-called flow equations, which describe the change of the quantum effective action under the variation of a coarse-graining parameter. In the present work, we discuss in detail a novel approach to solve such flow equations. This approach relies on the fact that RG equations can be rewritten such that they exhibit similarities with the conservation laws of fluid dynamics. This observation can be exploited in different ways. First of all, we show that this allows to employ powerful numerical techniques developed in the context of fluid dynamics to solve RG equations. In particular, it allows to reliably treat the emergence of non-analytic behavior in the RG flow of the effective action as it is expected to occur in studies of, e.g., spontaneous symmetry breaking. Second, the analogy between RG equations and fluid dynamics offers the opportunity to gain novel insights into RG flows and their interpretation in general, including the irreversibility of RG flows. We work out this connection in practice by applying it to zero-dimensional quantum-field theoretical models. The generalization to higher-dimensional models is also discussed. Our findings are expected to help improving future FRG studies of quantum field theories in higher dimensions both on a qualitative and quantitative level.
We demonstrate that the reformulation of renormalization group (RG) flow equations as non-linear heat equations has severe implications on the understanding of RG flows in general. We demonstrate by explicitly constructing an entropy function for a zero-dimensional $mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetric model that the dissipative character of generic non-linear diffusion equations is also hard-coded in the functional RG equation. This renders RG flows manifestly irreversible, revealing the semi-group property of RG transformations on the level of the flow equation itself. Additionally, we argue that the dissipative character of RG flows, its irreversibility and the entropy production during the RG flow may be linked to the existence of a so-called $mathcal{C}$-/$mathcal{A}$-function. In total, this introduces an asymmetry in the so-called RG time -- in complete analogy to the thermodynamic arrow of time -- and allows for an interpretation of infrared actions as equilibrium solutions of dissipative RG flows equations. The impossibility of resolving microphysics from macrophysics is evident in this framework. Furthermore, we directly link the irreversibility and the entropy production in RG flows to an explicit numerical entropy production, which is manifest in diffusive and non-linear partial differential equations (PDEs) and a standard mathematical tool for the analysis of PDEs. Using exactly solvable zero-dimensional $mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetric models, we explicitly compute the (numerical) entropy production related to the total variation non-increasing property of the PDE during RG flows towards the infrared limit. Finally, we discuss generalizations of our findings and relations to the $mathcal{C}$-/$mathcal{A}$-theorem as well as how our work may help to construct truncations of RG flow equations in the future, including numerically stable schemes for solving the corresponding PDEs.
We investigate by means of Monte Carlo simulation and Finite-Size Scaling analysis the critical properties of the three dimensional O(5) non linear sigma model and of the antiferromagnetic RP2 model, both of them regularized on a lattice. High accuracy estimates are obtained for the critical exponents, universal dimensionless quantities and critical couplings. It is concluded that both models belong to the same Universality Class, provide that rather non standard identifications are made for the momentum-space propagator of the RP2 model. We have also investigated the phase diagram of the RP2 model extended by a second-neighbor interaction. A rich phase diagram is found, where most phase transitions are first order.
A Kallen-Lehman approach to 3D Ising model is analyzed numerically both at low and high temperature. It is shown that, even assuming a minimal duality breaking, one can fix three parameters of the model to get a very good agreement with the MonteCarlo results at high temperatures. With the same parameters the agreement is satisfactory both at low and near critical temperatures. How to improve the agreement with MonteCarlo results by introducing a more general duality breaking is shortly discussed.
The scaling limit of the spin cluster boundaries of the Ising model with domain wall boundary conditions is SLE with kappa=3. We hypothesise that the three-state Potts model with appropriate boundary conditions has spin cluster boundaries which are also SLE in the scaling limit, but with kappa=10/3. To test this, we generate samples using the Wolff algorithm and test them against predictions of SLE: we examine the statistics of the Loewner driving function, estimate the fractal dimension and test against Schramms formula. The results are in support of our hypothesis.
We study the evolution of an embedded protoplanet in a circumstellar disk using the 3D-Radiation Hydro code TRAMP, and treat the thermodynamics of the gas properly in three dimensions. The primary interest of this work lies in the demonstration and testing of the numerical method. We show how far numerical parameters can influence the simulations of gap opening. We study a standard reference model under various numerical approximations. Then we compare the commonly used locally isothermal approximation to the radiation hydro simulation using an equation for the internal energy. Models with different treatments of the mass accretion process are compared. Often mass accumulates in the Roche lobe of the planet creating a hydrostatic atmosphere around the planet. The gravitational torques induced by the spiral pattern of the disk onto the planet are not strongly affected in the average magnitude, but the short time scale fluctuations are stronger in the radiation hydro models. An interesting result of this work lies in the analysis of the temperature structure around the planet. The most striking effect of treating the thermodynamics properly is the formation of a hot pressure--supported bubble around the planet with a pressure scale height of H/R ~ 0.5 rather than a thin Keplerian circumplanetary accretion disk. We also observe an outflow of gas above and below the planet during the gap opening phase.