We review the current status of the application of the local composite operator technique to the condensation of dimension two operators in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). We pay particular attention to the renormalization group aspects of the formalism and the renormalization of QCD in various gauges.
Quantum corrections to the magnetic central charge of the monopole in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory are free from the anomalous contributions that were crucial for BPS saturation of the two-dimensional supersymmetric kink and the N=2 monopole.
However these quantum corrections are nontrivial and they require infinite renormalization of the supersymmetry current, central charges, and energy-momentum tensor, in contrast to N=2 and even though the N=4 theory is finite. Their composite-operator renormalization leads to counterterms which form a multiplet of improvement terms. Using on-shell renormalization conditions the quantum corrections to the mass and the central charge then vanish both, thus verifying quantum BPS saturation.
We discuss relations and differences between two methods for the construction of unitarily transformed effective interactions, the Similarity Renormalization Group (SRG) and Unitary Correlation Operator Method (UCOM). The aim of both methods is to co
nstruct a soft phase-shift equivalent effective interaction which is well suited for many-body calculations in limited model spaces. After contrasting the two conceptual frameworks, we establish a formal connection between the initial SRG-generator and the static generators of the UCOM transformation. Furthermore we propose a mapping procedure to extract UCOM correlation functions from the SRG evolution. We compare the effective interactions resulting from the UCOM-transformation and the SRG-evolution on the level of matrix elements, in no-core shell model calculations of light nuclei, and in Hartree-Fock calculations up to 208-Pb. Both interactions exhibit very similar convergence properties in light nuclei but show a different systematic behavior as function of particle number.
The renormalization properties of two local BRST invariant composite operators, $(O,V_mu)$, corresponding respectively to the gauge invariant description of the Higgs particle and of the massive gauge vector boson, are scrutinized in the $U(1)$ Higgs
model by means of the algebraic renormalization setup. Their renormalization $Z$s factors are explicitly evaluated at one-loop order in the $overline{text{MS}}$ scheme by taking into due account the mixing with other gauge invariant operators. In particular, it turns out that the operator $V_mu$ mixes with the gauge invariant quantity $partial_ u F_{mu u}$, which has the same quantum numbers, giving rise to a $2 times 2$ mixing matrix. Moreover, two additional powerful Ward identities exist which enable us to determine the whole set of $Z$s factors entering the $2 times 2$ mixing matrix as well as the $Z$ factor of the operator $O$ in a purely algebraic way. An explicit check of these Ward identities is provided. The final setup obtained allows for computing perturbatively the full renormalized result for any $n$-point correlation function of the scalar and vector composite operators.
We show how the renormalons emerge from the renormalization group equation with a priori no reference to any Feynman diagrams. The proof is rather given by recasting the renormalization group equation as a resurgent equation studied in the mathematic
al literature, which describes a function with an infinite number of singularities in the positive axis of the Borel plane. Consistency requires a one-to-one correspondence between the existence of such kind of equation and the actual (generalized) Borel resummation of the renormalons through a one-parameter transseries. Our finding suggests how non-perturbative contributions can affect the running couplings. We also discuss these concepts within the context of gauge theories, making use of the large number of flavor expansion.
We first examine the scaling argument for a renormalization-group (RG) analysis applied to a system subject to the dimensional reduction in strong magnetic fields, and discuss the fact that a four-Fermi operator of the low-energy excitations is margi
nal irrespective of the strength of the coupling constant in underlying theories. We then construct a scale-dependent effective four-Fermi interaction as a result of screened photon exchanges at weak coupling, and establish the RG method appropriately including the screening effect, in which the RG evolution from ultraviolet to infrared scales is separated into two stages by the screening-mass scale. Based on a precise agreement between the dynamical mass gaps obtained from the solutions of the RG and Schwinger-Dyson equations, we discuss an equivalence between these two approaches. Focusing on QED and Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model, we clarify how the properties of the interactions manifest themselves in the mass gap, and point out an importance of respecting the intrinsic energy-scale dependences in underlying theories for the determination of the mass gap. These studies are expected to be useful for a diagnosis of the magnetic catalysis in QCD.