I. Nandori

Renormalization of periodic potentials

The renormalization of the periodic potential is investigated in the framework of the Euclidean one-component scalar field theory by means of the differential RG approach. Some known results about the sine-Gordon model are recovered in an extremely simple manner. There are two phases: an ordered one with asymptotical freedom and a disordered one where the model is nonrenormalizable and trivial. The order parameter of the periodicity, the winding number, indicates spontaneous symmetry breaking in the ordered phase where the fundamental group symmetry is broken and the solitons acquire dynamical stability. It is argued that the periodicity and the convexity are such strong constraints on the effective potential that it always becomes flat. This flattening is reproduced by integrating out the RG equation.

Functional Renormalization Group Approach to the Sine-Gordon Model

The renormalization group flow is presented for the two-dimensional sine-Gordon model within the framework of the functional renormalization group method by including the wave-function renormalization constant. The Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinski type phase structure is recovered as the interpolating scaling law between two competing IR attractive area of the global renormalization group flow.

Comparison of renormalization group schemes for sine-Gordon-type models

The scheme dependence of the renormalization group (RG) flow has been investigated in the local potential approximation for two-dimensional periodic, sine-Gordon type field-theoretic models discussing the applicability of various functional RG methods in detail. It was shown that scheme-independent determination of such physical parameters is possible as the critical frequency (temperature) at which Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii type phase transition takes place in the sine-Gordon and the layered sine-Gordon models, and the critical ratio characterizing the Ising-type phase transition of the massive sine-Gordon model. For the latter case, the Maxwell construction represents a strong constraint on the RG flow, which results in a scheme-independent infrared value for the critical ratio. For the massive sine-Gordon model also the shrinking of the domain of the phase with spontaneously broken periodicity is shown to take place due to the quantum fluctuations.

Renormalizable parameters of the sine-Gordon model

The well-known phase structure of the two-dimensional sine-Gordon model is reconstructed by means of its renormalization group flow, the study of the sensitivity of the dynamics on microscopic parameters. Such an analysis resolves the apparent contradiction between the phase structure and the triviality of the effective potential in either phases, provides a case where usual classification of operators based on the linearization of the scaling relation around a fixed point is not available and shows that the Maxwell-cut generates an unusually strong universality at long distances. Possible analogies with four-dimensional Yang–Mills theories are mentioned, too.

Generalized universality in the massive sine-Gordon model

A nontrivial interplay of the UV and IR scaling laws, a generalization of the universality is demonstrated in the framework of the massive sine-Gordon model, as a result of a detailed study of the global behavior of the renormalization group flow and the phase structure.

Renormalization-group analysis of layered sine-Gordon type models

Abstract We analyze the phase structure and the renormalization group (RG) flow of the generalized sine-Gordon models with nonvanishing mass terms, using the Wegner–Houghton RG method in the local potential approximation. Particular emphasis is laid upon the layered sine-Gordon (LSG) model, which is the bosonized version of the multi-flavour Schwinger model and approaches the sum of two “normal”, massless sine-Gordon (SG) models in the limit of a vanishing interlayer coupling J . Another model of interest is the massive sine-Gordon (MSG) model. The leading-order approximation to the UV (ultraviolet) RG flow predicts two phases for the LSG as well as for the MSG, just as it would be expected for the SG model, where the two phases are known to be separated by the Coleman fixed point. The presence of finite mass terms (for the LSG and the MSG) leads to corrections to the UV RG flow, which are naturally identified as the “mass corrections”. The leading-order mass corrections are shown to have the following consequences: (i) for the MSG model, only one phase persists, and (ii) for the LSG model, the transition temperature is modified. Within the mass-corrected UV scaling laws, the limit of J → 0 is thus nonuniform with respect to the phase structure of the model. The modified phase structure of general massive sine-Gordon models is connected with the breaking of symmetries in the internal space spanned by the field variables. For the LSG, the second-order subleading mass corrections suggest that there exists a cross-over regime before the IR scaling sets in, and the nonlinear terms show explicitly that higher-order Fourier modes appear in the periodic blocked potential.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking and optimization of functional renormalization group

The requirement for the absence of spontaneous symmetry breaking in the d=1 dimension has been used to optimize the regulator dependence of functional renormalization group equations in the framework of the sine-Gordon scalar field theory. Results obtained by the optimization of this kind were compared to those of the Litim-Pawlowski and the principle of minimal sensitivity optimization scenarios. The optimal parameters of the compactly supported smooth (CSS) regulator, which recovers all major types of regulators in appropriate limits, have been determined beyond the local potential approximation, and the Litim limit of the CSS was found to be the optimal choice.

Bosonization and functional renormalization group approach in the framework of QED2

Known results on two-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED_2) have been used to study the dependence of functional renormalization group equations on renormalization schemes and approximations applied for its bosonized version. It is demonstrated that the singularity of flow equations can be avoided in the optimized and power-law schemes for the bosonized model and the drawback of renormalization on bosonization is shown: it is indicated that renormalization of QED_2 possibly requires interaction terms corresponding to higher frequency modes of its bosonized version.

Phase structure and compactness

In order to study the influence of compactness on low-energy properties, we compare the phase structures of the compact and non-compact two-dimensional multi-frequency sine-Gordon models. It is shown that the high-energy scaling of the compact and non-compact models coincides, but their low-energy behaviors differ. The critical frequency β2 = 8π at which the sine-Gordon model undergoes a topological phase transition is found to be unaffected by the compactness of the field since it is determined by high-energy scaling laws. However, the compact two-frequency sine-Gordon model has first and second order phase transitions determined by the low-energy scaling: we show that these are absent in the non-compact model.

Effective action and phase structure of multi-layer sine-Gordon type models

Abstract We analyze the effective action and the phase structure of N-layer sine-Gordon type models, generalizing the results obtained for the two-layer sine-Gordon model found in [I. Nandori, S. Nagy, K. Sailer, U.D. Jentschura, Nucl. Phys. B, 725 (2005) 467–492]. Besides the obvious field theoretical interest, the layered sine-Gordon model has been used to describe the vortex properties of high transition temperature superconductors, and the extension of the previous analysis to a general N-layer model is necessary for a description of the critical behaviour of vortices in realistic multi-layer systems. The distinction of the Lagrangians in terms of mass eigenvalues is found to be the decisive parameter with respect to the phase structure of the N-layer models, with neighboring layers being coupled by quadratic terms in the field variables. By a suitable rotation of the field variables, we identify the periodic modes (without explicit mass terms) in the N-layer structure, calculate the effective action and determine their Kosterlitz–Thouless type phase transitions to occur at a coupling parameter β c , N 2 = 8 N π , where N is the number of layers (or flavors in terms of the multi-flavor Schwinger model).