Fisher scaling relation 2026-10-06
The correlation-function susceptibility sum rule and give when is finite, its large-distance tail is integrable and . With correlation-length critical exponent , this gives the displayed relation for the magnetic-susceptibility critical exponent. Microscopic distances contribute a regular background rather than the divergent critical power.
For a stable homogeneous scalar quartic saddle with gradient coefficient one, the Ornstein--Zernike correlation function has denominator . At zero source and , the correlation length is in the disordered phase and on either selected ordered branch. Linear thermal tuning of gives correlation-length critical exponent with different amplitudes on the two sides.
Critical exponents describe leading singular powers near a continuous phase transition. Using the reduced temperature , the standard definitions include
These are the order-parameter critical exponent, magnetic-susceptibility critical exponent, heat-capacity critical exponent and correlation-length critical exponent. The critical-isotherm exponent is defined by . The anomalous dimension gives the critical long-distance connected correlation function, , when an ordinary scale-invariant critical point exists.
In the Landau approximation, minimize the Landau free energy to obtain the equation of state, differentiate it with respect to the field conjugate to an order parameter to obtain magnetic susceptibility, and differentiate the minimized free energy with respect to temperature to obtain heat capacity. These operations determine , respectively. Expanding the Landau-Ginzburg theory about its uniform minimum gives the quadratic fluctuation kernel , whose Fourier transform determines the correlation length and the anomalous dimension. At the ordinary quartic critical point this gives and .
For , gives and hence ; the equilibrium free energy gives a finite heat capacity discontinuity, conventionally . Together with the explicit calculation below, the ordinary mean-field critical exponents are
These describe neglect of fluctuation corrections, rather than the exact exponents of every low-dimensional Landau-Ginzburg theory.
The correlation length is the distance over which fluctuations remain appreciably correlated. More precisely, in a massive phase the large-distance connected correlation function
has an exponential factor , possibly multiplied by a power. Equivalently, is the lowest inverse length in the long-wavelength fluctuation spectrum. In the Gaussian field theory with unit gradient coefficient, gives for positive renormalized mass.
At an ordinary continuous phase transition, the restoring force for long-wavelength order-parameter fluctuations vanishes and there is no finite correlation scale. The critical connected correlation function decays as a power rather than exponentially, so diverges. The correlation-function susceptibility sum rule relates magnetic susceptibility to the integral of this connected correlation function; its divergence is consistent with correlations extending over increasingly large distances. Interactions change the powers, so the renormalized mass and the bare mass need not vanish at the same temperature.
Absorb the thermal normalization into the action and set
Here , although denoted in the question, is a signed mass-squared coordinate, not a nonnegative square. This matters because its interacting fixed-point value is negative. Increasing eliminates high-momentum modes and moves towards the infrared. The initial values at are and .
To derive the flow, use the momentum-shell decomposition of a scalar field , where has momenta . Its Gaussian shell covariance is . Integrating out while preserving low-momentum observables gives
The cumulant expansion of a coarse-grained free energy yields . By Wick theorem,
The last term is field independent, while the quadratic term gives the one-loop shell mass renormalization in scalar quartic theory
This tadpole is independent of the external momentum, so no gradient renormalization occurs at this order.
For the quartic correction, the mixed vertex is . Its connected second cumulant uses and gives
Extracting the local zero-external-momentum quartic interaction, the integral over is . Comparing its coefficient with gives the one-loop shell quartic renormalization
The negative sign comes from the second cumulant; the numerical factor incorporates the three quartic channels.
For the thin spherical shell, radial integration gives
The shell is stable when , including a small negative critical mass. Because , differentiating the dimensionless couplings contributes their engineering dimensions and . Together with the shell corrections this yields the renormalization-group flow
These are the requested equations with . They express independence of the long-distance theory from the arbitrarily chosen ultraviolet cutoff, to the retained perturbative order; higher interactions and gradient corrections enter at higher orders.
Besides the Gaussian fixed point , a nonzero fixed point satisfies
Thus, within these truncated equations,
Since and , their leading epsilon expansion is
The rational expressions from the truncated flow are not a calculation of the genuine higher-order coefficients.
To assess stability, linearize in about this Wilson-Fisher fixed point. The stability matrix of a renormalization-group fixed point is
Using the fixed-point equation, its diagonal entries are and , respectively. Its upper off-diagonal entry is and its lower off-diagonal entry is . Hence its eigenvalues are
The interaction perturbation along the critical surface decays towards the infrared for small positive , whereas the thermal perturbation grows. Therefore infrared attraction requires tuning to the critical surface. The source's unqualified wording cannot mean attraction in both coupling directions: the positive thermal eigenvalue is precisely what produces the divergence of the correlation length. This is the thermal relevant direction at the Wilson-Fisher fixed point.
Let be the thermal scaling coordinate, a linear combination of and corresponding to the relevant left eigenvector of . To leading order, is possible. Its initial value is proportional to for a generic thermal path crossing the critical surface; the interaction also shifts the nonuniversal value of . In the linear regime,
Choose so that is of order one. At this scale the dimensionless correlation length is finite. Restoring the eliminated length scale gives
Consequently the correlation-length critical exponent is
There is no field anomalous dimension at one loop in this scalar quartic theory, since the one-loop self-energy is momentum independent; this is consistent with .
Let be the thermal and magnetic scaling fields, with eigenvalues and . After discarding irrelevant variables whose vanishing is nonsingular, the homogeneous singular free-energy density satisfies
Choose . Then
Two thermal derivatives give the heat-capacity critical exponent; one and two field derivatives give the order-parameter critical exponent and magnetic-susceptibility critical exponent. The correlation-length critical exponent follows directly from the length rescaling. Thus
At , choose . Differentiating gives , so . The order parameter has scaling dimension ; therefore its critical connected correlation function has power . Comparing with yields
These formulas express the requested critical exponents in terms of the relevant scaling exponents. Their hyperscaling assumptions must be respected: above an upper critical dimension, a dangerously irrelevant coupling can invalidate the free-energy homogeneity used here. Applying the formulas to the Gaussian thinning transformation in the root solution gives the requested Gaussian indices and their physical qualifications.
At a tricritical point, both and vanish, while stabilizes the Landau free energy. It separates ordinary continuous transitions for from first-order coexistence for . The zero-field order-parameter jump shrinks to zero as , and the tricritical wings terminate there in the full diagram. For , , minimizing gives and
Two thermal derivatives give the heat-capacity critical exponent , compared with the finite mean-field heat-capacity jump, , at an ordinary quartic transition. The remaining tricritical mean-field critical exponents are , and the mean-field correlation-length critical exponent is . To observe tricritical scaling one must tune the quartic scaling field as well as the thermal field: a generic path with fixed instead has ordinary critical behavior. Its upper critical dimension is three, as the multicritical Ginzburg ratio shows.
For , the quartic interaction has a nonzero limiting value instead of disappearing under coarse-graining. Long-wavelength thermal fluctuations are therefore interacting, so the fluctuation-free Landau approximation cannot give the generic critical powers. For example, its ordinary correlation-length critical exponent is , whereas the relevant thermal eigenvalue just derived gives
The tadpole is momentum independent, so the anomalous dimension begins at . Combining this with the scaling relations yields , , and , exhibiting the deviation from ordinary mean-field indices. These are controlled statements for small positive , not exact numerical exponents at arbitrary dimension. The Landau-Ginzburg theory itself is not invalid: integrating its fluctuations is precisely how the Wilson-Fisher fixed point was obtained. The invalid step is replacing that interacting long-distance theory by a uniform saddle and ignoring its fluctuation corrections.
Work in a translation-invariant pure thermodynamic phase, and write to distinguish inverse temperature from the order-parameter exponent. The connected correlation function is
Away from criticality in the massive scalar order channel, it decays exponentially, possibly multiplied by an algebraic factor. An exponential correlation length is defined by when that limit exists. At a continuous transition diverges and the critical decay is algebraic. In an ordered symmetric mixture, a nondecaying contribution can remain; selecting a pure branch prevents confusing it with connected critical fluctuations.
Let and . Differentiating the partition function with the energy term gives the correlation-function susceptibility sum rule
If the source is instead the dimensionless , the explicit inverse-temperature factor is absent. In continuum physical coordinates the lattice sum is approximately .
Choose a normalized blocking kernel such that , replacing the sum by an integral for continuous variables. A deterministic example is a product of delta functions imposing that each coarse variable equals the average of spins in a block of sites, with its field normalization included consistently. Define the effective Boltzmann weight by
Kernel normalization makes the blocked partition function exactly equal to the original. Its coarse-grained variables retain the long-distance observables through their defining relation to the original fields. An exact RG step generally generates all symmetry-allowed operators; keeping only a small coupling set is an approximation, not an exact closure assumption. The geometrical coarse lattice has
so its physical volume is unchanged. A subsequent coordinate rescaling may restore the numerical lattice spacing to its initial value, which is the equivalent rescaled-coordinate convention.
Here define as free energy per lattice site, . Exact partition-function invariance gives
Because multiplies the identity operator, a blocking step has , where is the generated constant per blocked site. With this implies
The identity-operator contribution to renormalization-group free energy includes the eliminated modes' entropy, connected vacuum terms and field-measure normalization. It cannot be discarded when calculating an absolute free energy, even though it cancels out of normalized correlation functions.
There is a useful convention behind the word “singular” in this inhomogeneous equation. After removing , still contains a regular coupling-dependent background. If and , then the genuinely nonanalytic part obeys . Thus the printed inhomogeneous representative and homogeneous singular scaling below are consistent after background subtraction. At resonances or marginal points this subtraction may leave additive or multiplicative logarithms; a strictly homogeneous pure-power form is then qualified accordingly.
A renormalization-group fixed point satisfies . Diagonalizing the linearized map gives scaling coordinates . For increasing coarse-graining length, defines a relevant operator, an irrelevant operator, and a marginal operator, whose fate needs nonlinear analysis. Here the are logarithmic scaling exponents: the eigenvalues of the discrete Jacobian matrix are , not the numbers themselves. The critical surface is the stable manifold flowing into the critical fixed point after every relevant scaling field is tuned to zero. A repulsive renormalization-group trajectory leaves the fixed point along relevant directions and flows toward a different long-distance phase.
Figure 1.
Linearized renormalization-group flows in a zero-field slice and the relevant-field plane
. Details.
For the requested two relevant fields, take and , with . Ignoring nonsingular irrelevant corrections and choosing a total blocking scale , the homogeneous singular free-energy density obeys
Choose so the renormalized thermal field is . This proves
Metric factors and regular analytic redefinitions of the scaling fields only change amplitudes. Likewise , so at the correlation-length critical exponent is . Two thermal derivatives of give the heat-capacity critical exponent , proving the hyperscaling relation
Two field derivatives also give ; one field derivative gives , and using to set the blocking scale on the critical isotherm gives . These statements assume that no dangerously irrelevant coupling makes the scaling function singular as it is removed. In particular the naive hyperscaling form need not describe the quartic ordered phase above four dimensions, where its stabilizing quartic coupling is dangerously irrelevant. That restriction reconciles this derivation with the mean-field exponents and Question 3.
The scaling form of the connected correlation function is in the continuum long-distance regime. For , tends to a finite nonzero constant. For , it decays exponentially with a possible algebraic prefactor; an isolated massive pole gives the familiar Ornstein--Zernike correlation function tail with a temperature-dependent amplitude. Exponential decay is the essential feature; the same critical algebraic power need not remain the exact large-distance prefactor.
Using the susceptibility sum rule and spherical integration gives
For and an ordinary exponentially decaying scaling function the integral tends to a finite constant: it converges at zero because is finite, and at infinity because of the exponential decay. Microscopic distances add a regular background. Thus , establishing the Fisher scaling relation
For a continuous field, field scaling and anomalous dimension give
This field renormalization is additional to the canonical engineering factor . It makes . Invariance of the uniform source coupling then gives , agreeing with the susceptibility exponent above. With a convention , the fixed-point choice is ; the sign of the logarithmic derivative depends on this stated convention.
The statistical Hamiltonian in this question is already in thermal units, as indicated by without an additional . Define and . The mean field and its linear response are
These are functional derivatives of the connected generating functional; the subtraction defines the connected correlation function. In the Landau approximation, neglect loop corrections and evaluate the field integral at a stable saddle . It satisfies the Euler-Lagrange equation
This follows by varying the gradient term and integrating by parts, with periodic, decaying, or otherwise appropriate boundary conditions.
The two requested free energy functionals, following the source and Legendre conventions of the question, are
In the scalar-field source Legendre transform on the chosen stable branch, is chosen to produce , and . Thus the imposed-source Helmholtz free energy and the fixed-order-parameter Gibbs free energy have the appropriate opposite source derivatives. These names are used in the question's magnetic-ensemble convention; the defining sign relation is what fixes the calculation. At leading Landau approximation there is no fluctuation-determinant term in .
Differentiate the saddle equation with respect to . The response obeys
Therefore
Equivalently, the inverse Hessian relation for a connected two-point function states that is the inverse kernel of . The factor follows from twice differentiating the quartic term ; it is not . This tree-level connected response is obtained by varying the saddle. It does not require replacing the exact connected correlator by a product of the saddle values, which would incorrectly give zero.
For the requested single-momentum formula, assume a homogeneous source and a translationally invariant equilibrium phase, so and . Set
The Fourier transform with the printed positive sign sends to , while the Dirac delta function transforms to one. Hence the Ornstein--Zernike correlation function has
The inverse convention is . For general inhomogeneous , has nonconstant coefficients and depends separately on its two positions; the displayed momentum-diagonal formula then does not follow. The preceding differential equation still holds in that case.
At zero source and for , the homogeneous saddle is for , and on either selected stable ordered branch for . Thus the Landau scalar correlation length is
In the ordered phase the negative bare quadratic coefficient is compensated by the positive curvature at the nonzero saddle. Retaining below the transition would instead give an unstable kernel and is not a physical correlation length. With the usual analytic thermal tuning , , both branches diverge as , so the correlation-length critical exponent is
The high-temperature amplitude is times the low-temperature amplitude for the same . This statement is within Landau theory; fluctuations can change critical behavior outside the mean-field regime.
When , the field theory is a Gaussian field theory, so integrating out short-wavelength modes can be done exactly rather than merely at a saddle. Introduce an ultraviolet momentum cutoff and a scale factor , then split into and . Orthogonality of Fourier modes eliminates cross terms in the quadratic Hamiltonian. A constant source couples only to the zero-momentum mode and therefore does not couple to .
Before rescaling, the Gaussian functional integral factorizes:
where has the original and , restricted to low momenta. Up to a field-independent normalization, the eliminated modes contribute
The determinant affects the additive free energy, but generates neither a mass correction nor a source correction, since no interaction mixes low and high modes. This remains true beyond the Landau approximation: it is an exact integration of a Gaussian field theory, not neglect of the high-mode fluctuations.
To restore the original cutoff, use , , and choose the field rescaling
Substitution into the low-mode Hamiltonian gives the Gaussian momentum-shell scaling
The gradient coefficient is unchanged: the volume factor is , the two derivatives contribute , and the two fields contribute . The mass term gains , while the source term gains . Thus
For a nonconstant source the corresponding formula is , after restricting its coupling to retained modes. The constant-source case avoids that extra source filtering.
Writing , the exact Gaussian renormalization-group flow has
Both perturbations are relevant at the massless zero-source Gaussian fixed point, with and . There is no anomalous field rescaling here, so and the correlation-length critical exponent is again . The coefficient changes arise from rescaling, not from an interaction-induced shift in during shell integration.
A stable real Gaussian functional integral requires , or an infrared prescription that treats the zero mode at the massless point. With and , the field energy is unbounded below; the Gaussian field theory alone cannot describe a stable ordered phase. The scaling laws are therefore interpreted about the Gaussian fixed point from the stable side, with finite-volume zero-mode regularization when needed.
The Gaussian fixed point is
Linearizing there gives , so the mass term is relevant with eigenvalue . The coupling has no linear term and is classically marginal, ; for positive the term makes it marginally relevant in the infrared convention of the question. Since the inverse thermal eigenvalue is the correlation-length critical exponent,
Identifying with temperature, write near the nonzero critical fixed point. The derivative of the beta function there is
Thus the temperature-like perturbation has renormalization-group eigenvalue . Since the correlation-length critical exponent satisfies ,
The Gaussian fixed point is the stable ordered-phase fixed point for , rather than the finite-temperature transition. In exactly two dimensions the flow instead gives an essential, exponential correlation-length divergence, corresponding formally to rather than a finite power-law exponent.
For , define dimensionless variables
To leading order, with ,
The Gaussian fixed point is . Its thermal eigenvalue is , so
The interacting Wilson-Fisher fixed point is
Linearizing the flow gives
Since the correlation-length critical exponent is ,
For , define the dimensionless couplings and . Since , the leading epsilon expansion of the flow is
There is a Gaussian fixed point . Its thermal eigenvalue is , so its correlation-length critical exponent is .
The interacting Wilson-Fisher fixed point is
Linearizing the renormalization-group flow gives the thermal eigenvalue
Taking its reciprocal gives
With , the one-loop renormalization-group beta function is . For and , its two nonnegative renormalization-group fixed points are zero and . Differentiating the beta function gives the displayed thermal eigenvalues, so the nonzero point has correlation-length critical exponent to leading order. At the zero eigenvalue requires nonlinear analysis: is marginally relevant for , but the perturbative spin-wave theory has a line of fixed points and omits vortices.
A discrete renormalization group with length factor and positive relevant thermal multiplier sends to and the correlation length to . Combining this with gives the displayed correlation-length critical exponent. The corresponding scaling dimension is . Relevance of discrete multipliers is determined by magnitude relative to one, unlike the sign criterion for continuous-flow eigenvalues.