Under Fermi-surface renormalization-group scaling, tangential momentum is fixed while
In frequency space the quadratic action is invariant when
equivalently, in the time representation and . The free Fermi liquid action is therefore marginal.
The deformation has no factor of frequency or normal momentum, so it is relevant. It shifts the zero of the quasiparticle energy from to and hence deforms the Fermi surface.
A generic quartic interaction is irrelevant because momentum conservation fixes a normal component and leaves an additional positive power of . It can be marginal only when all four momenta remain on the Fermi surface while satisfying
For a smooth generic Fermi surface, the robust possibilities are forward or exchange scattering and the opposite-momentum BCS channel , .