9.1: The Program of Renormalization
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A statistical mechanical system is defined by a set of degrees of freedom and by a set of coupling constants {K∗α}. The degrees of freedom can be discrete, such as Ising spins σ∗i, or continuous, such as a field ϕ(r). Additionally, each such system possesses a microscopic length scale ℓ. For discrete, lattice-based systems, this length scale is simply the lattice spacing: ℓ=a. For continuous systems, we can define a microscopic length scale by imposing a cutoff Λ on the wavevectors we integrate over in all Fourier transforms. That is, we replace ∫ddk(2π)dF(k)⟶∫ddk(2π)dF(k)g†Λ†(k) , where F(k) is any function and g†Λ†(k) is the cutoff function. The simplest such case to imagine is a sharp cutoff which is isotropic in wavevector, g†Λ†(k)=Θ(Λ−|k|). Other cutoff schemes, however, are possible, including ‘soft cutoffs’ where g†Λ†(k) is smooth. The microscopic length scale is then ℓ∼Λ−1, which is the smallest distance in real space over which the system can independently fluctuate.
The idea behind renormalization is that we can successively winnow degrees of freedom from a system in some exact or approximate way, and in so doing we generate a new version of the system, at a different length scale ℓ′>ℓ, and with different couplings {K′α}. We then iterate this procedure. The result is a set of equations which tell us how the couplings behave under a change of the microscopic length scale. As we shall see, the fixed points of this procedure – where couplings do not change under a change of length scale – are critical points. Such a fixed point is defined by a set of couplings {K∗α}.
If we denote by R∗b the renormalization procedure R∗b(ℓ,{K∗α})=(ℓ′,{K′α}) , where ℓ′=bℓ, then we have the composition law R∗bR∗b′=R∗b+b′. The set of transformations {R∗b} is collectively referred to as the renormalization group (RG) because of this mathematical structure. It is somewhat of a misnomer, however, since the transformations are only defined for b≥1, which means that there is no inverse operation, and hence no true group structure1. Nevertheless we shall use the RG terminology because it has become universally accepted in the literature.