# Polchinski ERG Equation and 2D Scalar Field Theory 11footnote 1 Talk given by Rui Neves at the Workshop on the Exact Renormalization Group (Faro, September 10-12 1998).

## 1 Introduction

Since its very origins, the exact renormalization group (ERG)  has proved to be a powerful tool for studies of non-perturbative effects in quantum field theory (see recent reviews in ).

A particularly interesting case is that of an effective scalar field theory in two dimensions. As it was first conjectured by Zamolodchikov , for a $`Z_2`$ symmetric theory there should exist an infinite set of non-perturbative fixed points corresponding to the unitary minimal series of $`(p,p+1)`$ conformal field theories, where $`p=3,4,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}`$ . Morris  showed numerically that such points do exist. The calculation was performed with a reparametrization invariant version of the Legendre ERG equation  expanded in powers of derivatives. It was also pointed out there that to the level of the local potential approximation only the continuum limits described by periodic solutions and corresponding to critical sine-Gordon models could be obtained. To find the expected set of fixed points the calculations had to be taken to the next order in the derivative expansion. This constituted a manifestation of the non-perturbative nature of the phenomena, and remarkably the Legendre ERG equation was powerful enough to locate and describe with good accuracy the expected set of 2D field theories.

In this work we study the same $`Z_2`$ symmetric scalar field theories in two dimensions but now with the Polchinski ERG equation . We present preliminary results which complement the results obtained with the Legendre ERG equation. In Sect. 2 we follow the article by Ball et al.  to present the basic equations of the formalism. This will allow us to set up notation for Sect. 3 where we analyse the equations to second order in the derivative expansion. In Sect. 4 we discuss the results and present our conclusions.

## 2 Polchinski equation and derivative expansion

The Polchinski equation  for a scalar theory can be written as follows 

$`{\displaystyle \frac{}{t}}\widehat{S}={\displaystyle _{\widehat{p}}}K^{}(\widehat{p}^2)\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\delta \widehat{S}}{\delta \widehat{\phi }_p}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta \widehat{S}}{\delta \widehat{\phi }_p}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta ^2\widehat{S}}{\delta \widehat{\phi }_p\delta \widehat{\phi }_p}}\right]+dS+`$   
$`{\displaystyle _{\widehat{p}}}\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{d}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\eta (t)}{2}}2\widehat{p}^2{\displaystyle \frac{K^{}(\widehat{p}^2)}{K(\widehat{p}^2)}}\right]\widehat{\phi }_p{\displaystyle \frac{\delta \widehat{S}}{\delta \widehat{\phi }_p}}{\displaystyle _{\widehat{p}}}\widehat{\phi }_p\widehat{p}{\displaystyle \frac{^{}}{\widehat{p}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta \widehat{S}}{\delta \widehat{\phi }_p}}.`$ (1)   
Here $`\widehat{S}`$ is a general Wilsonian action which can be written in terms of dimensionless variables as follows

$`\widehat{S}[\widehat{\phi };t]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle _p}\widehat{\varphi }_pp^2\left(K(\widehat{p}^2)\right)^1\widehat{\varphi }_p+\widehat{S}_{int}[\widehat{\phi };t],`$ (2)   
$`\widehat{S}_{int}[\widehat{\phi };t]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑y\left[v(\widehat{\varphi }(y),t)+z(\widehat{\varphi }(y),t)\left(\frac{\widehat{\varphi }}{y^\mu }\right)^2+\mathrm{}\right]}.`$ (3)   
In Eq. (1) the partial derivative on $`\widehat{S}`$ means it only acts on the explicit $`t=\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0/\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ dependence of the couplings and the prime in the momentum derivative means it does not act on the delta function of the energy-momentum conservation, and $`_{\widehat{p}}\frac{d^d\widehat{p}}{(2\pi )^d}`$. $`K(\widehat{p}^2)`$ is a (smooth) regulating function which damps the high energy modes satisfying the normalization condition $`K(0)=1`$. The renormalized field $`\widehat{\phi }_p`$ changes with scale according to

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }\frac{}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\widehat{\phi }_p=\left[1+\frac{d}{2}\frac{1}{2}\eta (t)\right]\widehat{\phi }_p,$$
(4)   
where $`\eta (t)`$ is the anomalous scaling dimension.

To the second order in the derivative expansion we consider the two terms which are written explicitly in Eq. (3). Within this approximation the Polchinski ERG equation reduces to the following system 

$`\dot{f}`$ $`=`$ $`f^{\prime \prime }+2Az^{}2ff^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }^+f+\mathrm{\Delta }^{}xf^{},`$ (5)   
$`\dot{z}`$ $`=`$ $`z^{\prime \prime }+Bf_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}4zf^{}2z^{}f+\mathrm{\Delta }^{}xz^{}\eta z\eta /2,`$ (6)   
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm =1\pm d/2\eta /2`$, $`f(x)=v^{}(x)`$, $`x\widehat{\phi }`$ and the potentials $`v(x,t)`$ and $`z(x,t)`$ are defined in Eq. (3). The dots and primes denote the partial derivatives with respect to $`t`$ and $`x`$ respectively. The parameters $`A`$ and $`B`$ reflect the scheme dependence of the equations and are equal to $`A=(I_1K_0)/I_0`$, $`B=K_1/K_0^2`$. Here $`K_n`$ and $`I_n`$, $`n=0,1,\mathrm{}`$ parametrize the regulating function in Eq. (2) and are defined by

$`K_n`$ $`=`$ $`(1)^{n+1}K^{(n+1)}(0),`$   
$`I_n`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\widehat{p}}}(\widehat{p}^2)^nK^{}(\widehat{p}^2)=\mathrm{\Omega }_d{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑zz^{d/21n}K^{}(z),`$   
where $`K^{(n)}`$ stands for the $`n`$-th derivative of $`K`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_d=2/(\mathrm{\Gamma }(d/2)(4\pi )^d)`$.

In the next section we search for fixed-point solutions, i.e. for functions $`f(x)`$ and $`z(x)`$ which are independent of $`t`$ and satisfy the system

$`f^{\prime \prime }+2Az^{}2ff^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }^+f+\mathrm{\Delta }^{}xf^{}=0,`$ (7)   
$`z^{\prime \prime }+Bf_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}4zf^{}2z^{}f+\mathrm{\Delta }^{}xz^{}\eta z\eta /2=0.`$ (8)   
We will choose the initial conditions (according to the terminology adopted in the literature on the ERG equations) set by the $`Z_2`$ symmetry: $`f(0)=0`$ and $`z^{}(0)=0`$ and by the normalization condition: $`z(0)=0`$. For the value of the first derivative of $`f(x)`$ at the origin we will take the condition $`f^{}(0)=\gamma `$, where $`\gamma `$ is a free parameter. The anomalous dimension $`\eta (t)`$ at a fixed point becomes the critical exponent $`\eta _{}`$.

## 3 Fixed points and critical exponents

To solve Eqs. (7), (8) for $`d=2`$ we consider the recursive numerical method already tested for $`d=3`$ . The physical fixed point solutions $`f_{}(x)`$, $`z_{}(x)`$ at the fixed point value $`\eta =\eta _{}`$ are regular for $`x>0`$ and have a certain asymptotic behavior as $`x+\mathrm{}`$. Thus the natural method for finding the correct numerical solution is to select those which can be integrated as far as possible in $`x`$. A generic solution will end at a sharp singularity for a finite value of $`x`$. The difficulty lies in the nonlinear and stiff nature of the equations and the need to fine tune $`\eta `$ and $`\gamma `$. This makes the direct integration of the system too hard. One way out is to solve it recursively.

Unlike the case $`d=3`$ studied in a number of articles , one faces an additional difficulty in two dimensions. It is not possible to start the iterative procedure by setting in Eq. (7) $`z=0`$ and $`\eta =0`$ as it is prescribed by the consistency of the leading approximation. For $`d=2`$ the Polchinski equation in the leading order has only periodic or singular solutions for all values of $`\gamma `$. To overcome this difficulty one has to consider $`\eta 0`$ as the initial value to start the iterations. Consequently, an analysis of the leading order Polchinski equation

$$f^{\prime \prime }2ff^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }^+f+\mathrm{\Delta }^{}xf^{}=0,$$
(9)   
with the initial conditions $`f(0)=0`$, $`f^{}(0)=\gamma `$ for non-zero $`\eta `$ is required.

We studied Eq. (9) for $`d=2`$ numerically for a wide range of values of $`\eta `$ and $`\gamma `$. Our results show that for each $`0<\eta 1`$ we can fine tune $`\gamma `$ in such a way as to obtain a non-trivial regular fixed point solution. The set of such values $`(\eta ,\gamma )`$ form a discrete series of continuous lines $`\eta (\gamma )`$ (see Fig. 1). In fact simple arguments can be presented which explain the appearance of the lines in the parameter space corresponding to regular fixed-point solutions $`f_{}(x)`$. Let $`x_0(\eta ,\gamma )`$ denote position of the pole of a generic solution of Eq. (9). Suppose that for some values $`(\eta ^{},\gamma ^{})`$ the solution is regular, i.e. $`x_0(\eta ^{},\gamma ^{})=+\mathrm{}`$. Let us take another value $`\eta ^{\prime \prime }`$ sufficiently close to $`\eta ^{}`$. Assuming that the function $`x_0(\eta ,\gamma )`$ is continuous, it is clear that there should exist the value $`\gamma ^{\prime \prime }`$ such that again $`x_0(\eta ^{\prime \prime },\gamma ^{\prime \prime })=+\mathrm{}`$. Hence there is a line of the ”constant value” $`x_0(\eta ,\gamma )=+\mathrm{}`$ in the parameter space. When we move along a fixed line the solutions $`f_{}(x)`$ do not change their shape significantly. Moreover, their shape follows a regular pattern when passing from one curve to the other similar to solutions obtained by Morris . This can be considered as a sign for the existence of the infinite discrete set of fixed points corresponding to the minimal unitary series of conformal models. We also would like to note that for $`2<\eta <6`$ and $`1<\gamma <1`$ there are no other non-trivial fixed-point solutions besides the ones corresponding to the lines discussed here.

We would like to note that a similar picture takes place in other dimensions. For $`d=3`$ we found the same discrete set of lines in the $`(\gamma ,\eta )`$-plane corresponding to regular solutions of Eq. (9), but in this case they are situated in the interval $`1<\eta 1/2`$ (see Fig. 1). As one can see there is a line (upper line in Fig. 1) which crosses the $`\gamma `$-axis at $`\gamma _{}=0.229\mathrm{}`$. This is the value of the parameter $`\gamma `$ for which a non-trivial fixed point solution of the Polchinski equation was found in the leading order (local potential approximation) . The important observation is that there is only one line in the $`(\gamma ,\eta )`$-plane with positive values of $`\eta `$. Since according to general arguments at physical fixed points $`\eta _{}>0`$, this suggests that for $`d=3`$ there is only one non-trivial fixed point. This is the Wilson-Fischer fixed point found in numerous previous studies .

Recall that for $`d=2`$ all the lines are situated in the $`\eta >0`$ half-plane, hence one can expect an infinite number of non-trivial fixed points. One more remark is relevant here. By a simple scaling analysis of Eq. (9) it can be shown that there is a certain mapping between the lines $`\eta (\gamma )`$ in different dimensions. When we pass from one dimension to another the line experiences a vertical shift and scaling transformation. More details about this mapping will be presented elsewhere.

We now pass to the study of the system (7), (8). We have seen that there are families of solutions of Eq. (9) corresponding to a given fixed point. It turns out that when the second equation of the system is taken into account, this degeneracy disappears. We solved the system using the following iteration procedure developed by Ball et al. . First we set $`z(x)=0`$, choose some initial value $`\eta =\eta _0`$ and fine tune $`\gamma `$ to the value $`\gamma =\gamma _0`$ corresponding to the regular solution $`f_0(x)`$ of the first equation (7) (or (9)). Of course, the point $`(\eta _0,\gamma _0)`$ lies on one of the lines described above (see Fig. 1)). As the next step we insert the function $`f_0(x)`$ into the second equation (8) for a fixed $`B`$ and fine tune $`\eta `$ to the value $`\eta =\eta _1`$ for which a regular solution $`z_1(x)`$ exists. Then we substitute $`z_1(x)`$ and $`\eta _1`$ into the first equation of the system and find a regular solution for a fixed value of $`A`$ thus obtaining a new value $`\gamma =\gamma _1`$ and a new function $`f_1(x)`$. We repeat this process keeping $`A`$ and $`B`$ fixed. As a result a sequence of functions $`f_0(x)`$, $`z_1(x)`$, $`f_1(x)`$, $`z_2(x),\mathrm{}`$, and a sequence of numbers $`\gamma _0`$, $`\eta _1`$, $`\gamma _1`$, $`\eta _2,\mathrm{}`$, are obtained, and we test them for convergence.

For $`d=3`$ and for the relevant line, associated with the Wilson-Fischer fixed point, we confirmed the results by Ball et al. . The new feature in our calculations is that we took $`\eta _00`$ as the initial value of the iterating procedure, whereas in  only $`\eta _0=0`$ was considered. We conclude that the numerical method converges and that the rate of convergence is controlled by $`A`$ for fixed $`\eta _0`$. The best $`A`$ was shown to correspond to the inflexion point where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\eta =\eta _2\eta _1`$ changes sign. The important observation is that the final values $`\eta _{}`$ and $`\gamma _{}`$ to which the iterations converge (i.e. the fixed-point values) do not depend on the initial value $`\eta _0`$. When $`\eta _0`$ is closer to the fixed-point value the rate of convergence is of course faster. The final value $`\eta _{}`$ depends on $`B`$ linearly. For $`A=0`$ the two equations decouple and there is no need for iterations to find a solution of the system. We just have to adjust $`B`$ such that $`\eta _1=\eta _0`$. For the Wilson-Fischer fixed point $`\eta _0=\eta _1=0.04`$ we found $`B=0.666768\mathrm{}`$ and $`\gamma _{}=\gamma _0=0.197435\mathrm{}`$.

For $`d=2`$ the situation is totally different. For any line $`\eta (\gamma )`$ we start with and the initial value $`(\eta _0,\gamma _0)`$ the iterative procedure turns out to be divergent if $`A0`$. Only for $`A=0`$ we have been able to find a solution to the now decoupled system (7), (8) by adjusting $`B`$. Similar to the case $`d=3`$ we have not found any natural criteria to select the value of $`B`$ since for each line $`B`$ depends monotonically on $`\eta `$ decreasing as $`\eta 0`$. To determine the fixed-point solutions, corresponding to the minimal unitary series of conformal field theories, we have fixed the value of $`B`$ by a fit to the series of exact values for the anomalous scaling dimension $`\eta _{}`$. In this way we found $`B0.25`$. The fixed-point solutions for $`f_{}(x)`$ display regular behaviour and are reminiscent of those obtained by Morris . In particular they have $`p2`$ extrema, $`p=3,4,\mathrm{}`$ (see Fig. 2). The fixed point solutions for $`z_{}(x)`$ have the same pattern of extrema, though their profiles are different from those of Morris.

Next for $`B=1/4`$ and and corresponding values $`\eta =\eta _{}`$ we have calculated the critical exponent $`\nu `$. For this we considered perturbations of the functions $`f(x)`$ and $`z(x)`$ around the fixed-point solutions,

$$f(x)=f_{}(x)+\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}g_n(x)e^{\lambda _nt},z(x)=z_{}(x)+\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}h_n(x)e^{\lambda _nt},$$

and substituted them into Eqs. (5), (6). After linearization we obtained the system

$`g_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }2g_nf_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{}2f_{}g_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^+g_n+\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^{}xg_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda _ng_n,`$   
$`h_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }2f_{}h_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}2g_nz_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{}4f_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{}h_n4g_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}z_{}`$   
$`+\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^{}xh_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\eta _{}h_n+2Bf_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{}g_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda _nh_n,`$   
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^{}`$ are calculated for $`\eta =\eta _{}`$.

For $`Z_2`$ perturbations the initial conditions are $`g_n(0)=0`$, $`h_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(0)=0`$. We also imposed the normalization condition $`g_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(0)=1`$. Away from the fixed point (but sufficiently close to it) we relaxed $`h_n`$ to be different from zero, $`h_n=\delta `$. Then $`\lambda _n`$ and $`\delta `$ were fine tuned so that polynomially growing eigenfunctions were obtained. For $`d=2`$, $`A=0`$ and $`B=1/4`$ we have calculated the critical exponent $`\nu =1/\lambda _1`$. The results for $`\eta _{}`$ and $`\nu `$ are given in Table 1. We conclude that the Polchinski ERG equation gives the values for the critical exponent which match quite well the exact conformal field theory values  and the results by Morris , also included in the table.

We note that the best fit value for $`B`$ that we have found actually corresponds to a well defined subset of the regulating functions. An explicit example is $`K(x)=(1+ax+bx^2)e^x`$, where $`a+2b+1=0`$ to ensure $`I_1=0`$ and $`I_0=\mathrm{\Omega }_d`$, and $`a=5\pm 2\sqrt{6}`$ to give $`B=1/4`$.

$`p`$ 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12    $`\eta _{}`$ .204 .183 .0865 .0708 .0496 .0413 .0328 .0281 .0234 .0206  $`\eta _{\text{CFT}}`$ .25 .15 .10 .0714 .0536 .0417 .0333 .0273 .0227 ..0192  $`\eta ^{}`$ .309 .200 .131 .0920 .0679 .0521 .0412 .0334 0277 .0233  $`\nu `$ 1.41 .560 .527 .521 .515 .512 .509 .508 .507 .506  $`\nu _{\text{CFT}}`$ 1 .556 .536 .525 .519 .514 .511 .509 .508 .506  $`\nu ^{}`$ .863 .566 .545 .531 .523 .517 .514 .511 .509 .508  

Table 1: The critical exponents $`\eta _{}`$ and $`\nu `$ obtained, as compared to the

values obtained by Morris  ($`\eta ^{}`$, $`\nu ^{}`$) and the exact results of

conformal field theory ($`\eta _{\text{CFT}}`$, $`\nu _{\text{CFT}}`$).

## 4 Discussion and conclusions

In this work we have studied the solutions of the Polchinski ERG equation for an effective $`Z_2`$-symmetric scalar field theory in the two-dimensional space $`R^2`$. We have seen that this equation provides a reliable non-perturbative evidence for the existence of the fixed-point solutions corresponding to the minimal unitary series of conformal field theories and allows to calculate the anomalous dimension and the critical exponents with good accuracy. This constitutes another positive test of the power of the ERG approach. At the same time our studies are complementary to similar calculations within the ERG approach based on the equation for the Legendre action .

As mentioned above, in the leading order of the derivative expansion (local potential approximation) the consistent value for $`\eta `$ is 0 and only periodic sine-Gordon type fixed-point solutions can be obtained. However, we have found that there are continuous families of fixed-point solutions corresponding to a series of lines $`\eta (\gamma )`$ in the $`(\gamma ,\eta )`$ plane which have a part with positive values $`\eta >0`$. It was also argued that these lines correspond to the multicritical fixed points of the theory. It is by taking into account the second order in the derivative expansion that we find isolated fixed-point solutions. We have found the first 10 points out of the infinite series and calculated the critical exponent $`\nu `$ for them. The results depend on the choice of the regulating function. The value of $`B`$, for which a regular solution exists, depends linearly on $`\eta `$, so the criterium of minimal sensitivity cannot be applied to fix $`B`$. The best fit to the conformal field theory values of $`\eta `$ gives us $`A=0`$, $`B0.25`$. No other regulating functions have been found to work. For $`d=2`$ whenever $`A0`$, the iterative procedure is not seen to converge. In fact, for $`A=0`$ there is no need for iterations since the two equations of the Polchinski approach decouple. This is in sharp contrast to the case of $`d=3`$ where convergence was checked for $`A0`$ . For the values $`A=0`$, $`B=1/4`$, giving the best fit, our results are comparable in accuracy and sometimes better (the accuracy also increases with multicriticality) than those of Morris . We would like to note that fixing $`B`$ by the best fit to exact results for the anomalous dimensions $`\eta `$ is reminiscent of fixing the renormalization scheme dependence in the perturbative renormalization group. It is also similar to fixing the regulator by the condition of the reparametrization invariance for the ERG equation for the Legendre action (that corresponds to the limiting case of $`A=0`$, $`B=\mathrm{}`$) .

Another important point we would like to mention is that in our analysis we have not found non-trivial fixed points other than those corresponding to the minimal models. This is what one expects from Zamolodchikov’s $`c`$-theorem . The conclusion is already clear from the analysis of the leading order Polchinski equation for $`\eta 0`$ when the lines in the $`(\gamma ,\eta )`$-plane corresponding to non-trivial fixed points are plotted.

As final comments we would like to mention that to obtain an estimate of the error of our numerical results in Table 1 one needs to carry out the calculations to the next order of the derivative expansion. It would be also interesting to expand the analysis for higher dimension operators.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Tim Morris and José Latorre for some fruitful discussions during the Workshop. We also acknowledge financial support by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under grant number CERN/S/FAE/   
1177/97. Yu.K. acknowledges financial support from fellowship PRAXIS XXI   
/BCC/4802/95. R.N. acknowledges financial support from fellowship PRAXIS XXI/BPD/14137/97.

References