Aernout C. D. van Enter

Regularity properties and pathologies of position-space renormalization-group transformations: Scope and limitations of Gibbsian theory

We reconsider the conceptual foundations of the renormalization-group (RG) formalism, and prove some rigorous theorems on the regularity properties and possible pathologies of the RG map. Our main results apply to local (in position space) RG maps acting on systems of bounded spins (compact single-spin space). Regarding regularity, we show that the RG map, defined on a suitable space of interactions (=formal Hamiltonians), is always single-valued and Lipschitz continuous on its domain of definition. This rules out a recently proposed scenario for the RG description of first-order phase transitions. On the pathological side, we make rigorous some arguments of Griffiths, Pearce, and Israel, and prove in several cases that the renormalized measure is not a Gibbs measure for any reasonable interaction. This means that the RG map is ill-defined, and that the conventional RG description of first-order phase transitions is not universally valid. For decimation or Kadanoff transformations applied to the Ising model in dimension d⩾3, these pathologies occur in a full neighborhood {β>β0, ¦h¦<ε(β)} of the low-temperature part of the first-order phase-transition surface. For block-averaging transformations applied to the Ising model in dimension d⩾2, the pathologies occur at low temperatures for arbitrary magnetic field strength. Pathologies may also occur in the critical region for Ising models in dimension d⩾4. We discuss the heuristic and numerical evidence on RG pathologies in the light of our rigorous theorems. In addition, we discuss critically the concept of Gibbs measure, which is at the heart of present-day classical statistical mechanics. We provide a careful, and, we hope, pedagogical, overview of the theory of Gibbsian measures as well as (the less familiar) non-Gibbsian measures, emphasizing the distinction between these two objects and the possible occurrence of the latter in different physical situations. We give a rather complete catalogue of the known examples of such occurrences. The main message of this paper is that, despite a well-established tradition, Gibbsiannessshould not be taken for granted.

Proof of Straley's Argument for Bootstrap Percolation

We prove thatPc=1 for bootstrap percolation with large void instabilities (in particular, ifm=3 on the square lattice).

Provable first-order transitions for nonlinear vector and gauge models with continuous symmetries

We consider various sufficiently nonlinear vector models of ferromagnets, of nematic liquid crystals and of nonlinear lattice gauge theories with continuous symmetries. We show, employing the method of Reflection Positivity and Chessboard Estimates, that they all exhibit first-order transitions in the temperature, when the nonlinearity parameter is large enough. The results hold in dimension 2 or more for the ferromagnetic models and the RPN−1 liquid crystal models and in dimension 3 or more for the lattice gauge models. In the two-dimensional case our results clarify and solve a recent controversy about the possibility of such transitions. For lattice gauge models our methods provide the first proof of a first-order transition in a model with a continuous gauge symmetry.

Robustness of the non-Gibbsian property: some examples

We discuss some examples of measures on lattice systems, which lack the property of being a Gibbs measure in a rather strong sense.

Pathological Behavior of Renormalization-Group Maps at High Fields and Above the Transition Temperature

We show that decimation transformations applied to high-q Potts models result in non-Gibbsian measures even for temperatures higher than the transition temperature. We also show that majority transformations applied to the Ising model in a very strong field at low temperatures produce non-Gibbsian measures. This shows that pathological behavior of renormalization-group transformations is even more widespread than previous examples already suggested.

Ill-defined block-spin transformations at arbitrarily high temperatures

Examples are presented of block-spin transformations which map the Gibbs measures of the Ising model in two or more dimensions at temperature intervals extending to arbitrarily high temperatures onto non-Gibbsian measures. In this way we provide the first example of this kind of pathology for very high temperatures, and as a corollary also the first example of such a pathology happening at a critical point.

Stochastic Symmetry-Breaking in a Gaussian Hopfield Model

We study a “two-pattern” Hopfield model with Gaussian disorder. We find that there are infinitely many pure states at low temperatures in this model, and that the metastate is supported on an infinity of symmetric pairs of pure states. The origin of this phenomenon is the random breaking of a rotation symmetry of the distribution of the disorder variables.

Regularity properties and pathologies of position-space renormalization-group transformations

Abstract We consider the conceptual foundations of the renormalization-group (RG) formalism. We show that the RG map, defined on a suitable space of interactions, is always single-valued and Lipschitz continuous on its domain of definition. This rules out a recently proposed scenario for the RG description of first-order phase transitions. On the other hand, we prove in several cases that near a first-order phase transition the renormalized measure is not a Gibbs measure for any reasonable interaction. It follows that the conventional RG description of first-order transitions is not universally valid.

Gibbs-non-Gibbs properties for n-vector lattice and mean-field models

We review some recent developments in the study of Gibbs and non-Gibbs properties of transformed n-vector lattice and mean-field models under various transformations. Also, some new results for the loss and recovery of the Gibbs property of planar rotor models during stochastic time evolution are presented.

Dynamical versus diffraction spectrum for structures with finite local complexity

It is well known that the dynamical spectrum of an ergodic measure dynamical system is related to the diffraction measure of a typical element of the system. This situation includes ergodic subshifts from symbolic dynamics as well as ergodic Delone dynamical systems, both via suitable embeddings. The connection is rather well understood when the spectrum is pure point, where the two spectral notions are essentially equivalent. In general, however, the dynamical spectrum is richer. Here, we consider (uniquely) ergodic systems of finite local complexity and establish the equivalence of the dynamical spectrum with a collection of diffraction spectra of the system and certain factors. This equivalence gives access to the dynamical spectrum via these diffraction spectra. It is particularly useful as the diffraction spectra are often simpler to determine and, in many cases, only very few of them need to be calculated.