 Scaling hypothesis for critical phenomena

The scaling hypothesis treats the singular equilibrium free-energy density as a generalized homogeneous function of thermal and field-like scaling variables. Choosing the blocking factor to make the thermal variable order one gives $F_s=|t{|}^{D/y_t}{f}_{\pm }(h/|t{|}^{y_h/y_t})$. It concerns the singular contribution after subtracting analytic backgrounds. Dangerously irrelevant couplings or marginal logarithms can qualify this simple two-variable form. Differentiation yields scaling relations for critical exponents.