# Tagged Questions

Renormalization is an ensemble of techniques which serves to treat the infinities which appear in quantum field theory or statistical mechanics.

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### Beta-function non-zero at classical level?

In Jaume Gomis's lecture 5 on CFT at Perimeter Institute, he says (at 27:40 minute mark) that the beta function, classically, of the $m^2$ parameter in massive $\lambda \phi^4$ theory is \beta(m^2) ...
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### Setting of renormalization scale in field theory calculations

In dimensional regularization an arbitrary mass parameter $\mu$ must be introduced in going to $4-\epsilon$ dimensions. I am trying to understand to what extent this parameter can be eliminated from ...
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### Can Divergences in Nonrenormalizable Theories Always Be Absorbed by (An Infinite Number of) Counterterms?

For example, consider the $\phi^3$ theory in $d=8$, with Lagrangian: $\mathcal{L}=\frac{1}{2}\partial_{\mu}\phi\partial^{\mu}\phi-\frac{1}{2}m^{2}\phi^{2}-\frac{1}{3!}\lambda_{3}\phi^{3}$. In 8 ...
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### Renormalizibility by power counting

When testing a theory for its renormalizability, in practice one always calculates the mass dimension of the coupling constants $g_i$. If $[g_i]>0$ for any $i$ the theory is not renormalizable. I ...
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### Under what conditions are the renormalization group equations “reversible”?

As I understand it, the renormalization group is only a semi-group because the coarse graining part of a renormalization step consisting of Summing / integrating over the small scales (coarse ...
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### Renormalization condition: why must be the residue of the propagator be 1

In on-shell scheme, one of the renormalization conditions is that the propagator, say, a scalar theory $$\frac{1}{p^2+m^2-\Sigma(p^2)-i\epsilon}$$ must have a unit residue at the pole of ...
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### What is the relationship between complex time singularities and UV fixed points?

In this paper it is described how the turbulent kinetic energy spectrum and the flatness (a measure for intermittency) are governed by the position of the (dominant) singularities of the solutions of ...
2answers
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### What constant varies in the fine structure constant?

Using the renormalization group approach, coupling constants are "running". If we apply this to the fine structure (coupling) constant, we do know that, e.g., at energies around the Z mass, \alpha ...
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### physical importance of regularization in QFT?

The standard lore in QFT is that one must work with renormalised fields, mass, interaction etc. So we must work with "physical" or renormalised quantities and all our ignorance with respect to its ...
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### Does the number of left handed chiral quark superfields always equal half the number of quark flavours?

In Weinberg's "The Quantum Theory of Fields Vol III" page 267 we're told that $n_f = 2N_f$. Where $n_f$ are the number of flavours and $N_f$ is the number of left chiral quark superfields (or the ...
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### Infinite Energy of Point Charges (in the context of classical field theories)

In the context of classical physics,is there any renormalization method to avoid infinite energy of point charges?
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### Degree of divergence of a Feynman diagram

I am studying the degrees of divergence of Feynman diagrams. I feel that I miss something but I don't really understand what. Please apologize if this question is silly. Anyway. As an introduction to ...
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### Beta function of pure $SU(N_\text{c})$ Yang-Mills theory

What is the dependence of the beta function of pure $SU(N_\text{c})$ Yang-Mills theory on the number of colors? I guess ...
1answer
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### One-loop $\phi^4$ theory in $d = 3$

I'm trying to calculate the 1 loop correction to the propagator in massless $\phi^4$ theory, in $d = 3$, just for fun. The diagram just looks like a straight line with a circle touching tangently to ...
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### Why is Einstein gravity not renormalizable at two loops or more?

(I found this related Phys.SE post: Why is GR renormalizable to one loop?) I want to know explicitly how it comes that Einstein-Hilbert action in 3+1 dimensions is not renormalizable at two loops or ...
1answer
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### What does it mean to integrate out fields from a theory?

I've done a fair bit of reading on this subject and I'm still confused about the basic principle of integrating out fields in QFT. When we have a function of 2 fields a and b, f(a,b), and we integrate ...
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### Dimensional Regularization involving $\epsilon^{\mu\nu\alpha\beta}$

Is it possible to dimensionally regularize an amplitude which contains the totally antisymmetric Levi-Civita tensor $\epsilon^{\mu\nu\alpha\beta}$? I don't know if it's possible to define ...
1answer
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### Why is $R^2$ gravity not unitary?

I have often heard that $R^2$ gravity (as studied by Stelle) is renormalisable but not unitary. My question is: what is it that causes the theory to suffer from problems with unitarity? My naive ...
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### Symmetries in Wilsonian RG (2)

This question is related to the paper http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.5221 and is a continuation of the previous question Symmetries in Wilsonian RG In the liked paper why do the equalities in equation ...
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### Dimensional regularization and IR divergences and scale invariance

I want to know if dimensional regularization has any issues if the theory has IR divergences or is scale invariant. Does dimensional regularization see "all" kinds of divergences? I mean - what ...
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### What states are satisfying an entropic area law and why do they satisfy it? More specificly why do matrix product states satisfy it?

I am currently reading some papers concerning the question why the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method is working well for simulating one dimensional systems and bad for higher ...
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### Divergent sum in lightcone quantization of bosonic string theory

I had the following question regarding lightcone quantization of bosonic strings - The normal ordering requirement of quantization gives us this infinite sum $\sum_{n=1}^\infty n$. This is regularized ...
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260 views

### Symmetries in Wilsonian RG

I wanted to know if there is a theorem that in writing a Lagrangian if one missed out a term which preserves the (Lie?) symmetry of the other terms and is also marginal then that will necessarily be ...
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### Radial quantization and infrared divergences

I am reading Ginspard lectures "Applied CFT" http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9108028 which is not my first material on the subject. He tries to motivates radial quantization on the reason that ...
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### Regulator-scheme-independence in QFT

Are there general conditions (preservation of symmetries for example) under which after regularization and renormalization in a given renormalizable QFT, results obtained for physical quantities are ...
1answer
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### Soft Mass and Physical Mass in Softly-broken SUSY

In softly broken SUSY, the bare mass parameters may be specified at e.g. the GUT scale, and then we can run these down to another scale using RGEs, similar in form to the RGEs for gauge couplings, ...
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### Zeta regularization gone bad

This may sound as a mathematical question, but it should be very familiar to physicists. I am trying to perform an expansion of the function $$f(x) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{K_2(nx)}{n^2 x^2},$$ for ...
1answer
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### Renormalization: Why is only a finite number of counter-terms allowed?

I have a question please about renormalization in QFT. Why a renormalizable theory requires only a finite number of counter-terms?
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### Can't find the mass scale; calculation using the modified minimal subtraction scheme and dimensional regularisation

I am taking a course on quantum field theory where there is some confusion regarding the renormalisation scheme we are using (and a corresponding one in my mind). Apparently the lecturer meant MS-bar ...
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### Difference between a Fixed Point and a Limit Point in implementations of the Renormalization Group (RNG) in Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model

In the introduction of this paper, it is explained that and how the application of a dynamic subrid scale model for turbulence into a large eddy simulation (LES) model corresponds to doing one ...
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### Why do irrelevant operators require infinitely many counterterms?

As far as I understand it, in the Wilsonian picture of renormalization, we view a theory as having some fixed cutoff and bare couplings, and integrate out high-momentum modes to understand what ...
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### Renormalization Group and Ising with d=1 and D=1

I have a question about the results of RG on Ising model. I know it's possible to obtain two couple of relations $K'(K)$, $q(K')$ $K(K')$, $q(K)$ between the coupling costants. My problem arise ...
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### Can modern twistor methods to calculate scattering amplitudes be applied to renormalization group calculations?

As explained for example in this article by Prof. Strassler, modern twistor methods to calculate scattering amplitudes have already been proven immensely helpful to calculate the standard model ...
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### Drawing the RG flow diagram

In real-space renormalization group how does one find the complete RG flow exactly, (not schematically)? I understand it needs to be done on a computer. For example, I have the ising model on a ...
3answers
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### Why is gravity so hard to unify with the other 3 fundamental forces?

Electricity and magnetism was unified in the 19th century, and unification of electromagnetism with the weak force followed suit, bringing into play the electroweak force. I've been told that ...
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### Does the Standard Model have a Landau pole?

I have seen the statement that the Standard Model has a Landau pole, or at least it its believed that it does at $\sim 10^{34}$ GeV. Has this actually been proven (at least in perturbation theory, as ...
3answers
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### Effective operator in four-fermion interaction

In one book, I have got the following lines which I found myself unable to understand what is effective operator? The paragraph is given below: The weak interaction describes nuclear beta decay, ...
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### Dimensional transmutation in Gross-Neveu vs others

Firstly I don't know how generic is dimensional transmutation and if it has any general model independent definition. Is dimensional transmutation in Gross-Neveau somehow fundamentally different ...
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### Exact Beta Functions in Statistical Mechanics

I'm looking for analytically solvable models in statistical mechanics (classical or quantum) or related areas such as solid state physics in which the beta function for a certain renormalization ...
1answer
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### Defining a CFT using beta-functions

Won't it be correct to define a CFT as a QFT such that the beta-function of all the couplings vanish? But couldn't it be possible that the beta-function of a dimensionful coupling vanishes but it ...
1answer
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### What is the physical meaning of this simplification to calculate the effective coupling constants for a Gaussian model with quartic interactions?

To calculate the effective coupling constants $u'_2(q)$ and $u'_4(q)$ of the effective Hamiltinian eq (4.9) of this paper  H' = -\frac{1}{2}\int\limits_q u'_2(q)\sigma'_q\sigma'_{-q} - ...
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### A question on charge renormalization in QED

Let us work with charge renormalization in QED. Consider 2-point photon correlation function $\Pi_2(q^2)$ at one loop level. We normalize the coupling constant at $q^2=0$ (point of normalization). ...
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### Good reference for renormalization [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Are there books on Regularization at an Introductory level? I am looking for a good introduction to renormalization (group). I have read several books about it but never ...
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### CP-violation in weak and strong sectors

There is a possible CP-violating term in the strong sector of the standard model proportional to $\theta_\text{QCD}$. In the absence of this term, the strong interactions are CP-invariant. In the ...
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### Confused by renormalization [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Suggested reading for renormalization (not only in QFT) I'm trying to learn QFT. I don't quite understand why renormalization works. If you are calculating a Feynman ...
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### Nonpertubative renormalization in quantum field theory versus statistical physics

I am trying to work my head around how renormalization works for quantum field theory. Most treatments cover perturbative renormalization theory and I am fine with this approach. But it is not the ...
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### Divergence in Supergravity

I'm not familiar with supergravity so here's my question: I've heard in talks that if one finds divergence for five-loop 4-graviton scattering amplitudes in five dimensions this translates to a ...
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### Are irrelevant terms in the Kahler potential always irrelevant, even at strong coupling?

I've been reading about the duality cascade in Strassler's TASI '03 lectures (hep-th/0505153). He reminds us of the non-renormalization theorem theorem for the superpotential so that the beta ...
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### Renormalization group evolution equations and ill-posed problems

There is a class of observables in QFT (event shapes, parton density functions, light-cone distribution amplitudes) whose the renormalization-group (RG) evolution takes the form of an ...
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### What's the difference between divergences that can be corrected and those that can't

I'm confused by renormalization . If a lagrangian has a term with negative mass dimension , why can't the divergences be absorbed into lagrangian coefficients? What's the difference between ...
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