Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 64 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write for inverse temperature to distinguish it from the order-parameter critical exponent. A normalized blocking kernel is a nonnegative conditional distribution of coarse spins given the fine spins, normalized byFor deterministic blocking it can impose a majority rule or block average, with a Dirac delta replacing the sum constraint for continuous coarse variables. Each block occupies original cells, so the new lattice spacing and number of sites areThe physical volume is unchanged. After blockings, and .
Define the coarse statistical Hamiltonian by the exact Boltzmann-weight identityThe operator family must include all generated interactions for this renormalization-group transformation to be exact; restricting it to a few couplings is an approximation. The scalar has energy units and is the contribution per original site that is independent of . Restoring the original constant term giveshenceThis convention measures per original site; defining a constant per new site would move a factor into its definition.
The identity-operator contribution to renormalization-group free energy records the configuration-independent normalization generated by the eliminated spins. It includes their contribution to free energy, including entropy and measure factors, and need not be independent of temperature. It has no effect on normalized probabilities of the retained spins, but is indispensable for the total partition function and its temperature derivatives. Iterating its recursion givesThus is the original constant plus the accumulated free-energy contributions of the eliminated degrees of freedom.
To obtain the additive free-energy recursion under blocking, use energy-valued free energy per current lattice site,The blocking kernel normalization impliesSubstituting the recursion for cancels , givingA second step gives , and induction provesFor dimensionless free energy , multiply throughout by .
The singular free-energy density must be distinguished from the exact per-site representative . If is a regular background and , thenThus the same displayed inhomogeneous recursion holds with after subtraction. When a suitable analytic background solves , it leaves a homogeneous singular recursion. Analytic subtraction of an inhomogeneous renormalization recursion explains this separation. A renormalization-group free-energy resonance can obstruct analytic subtraction and produce a logarithm. The original function originates in the short-distance spins that were summed out, rather than in an extra external interaction.
Near a renormalization-group fixed point , linearize the transformation:An eigenvector of with eigenvalue defines a scaling coordinate with to leading order. A relevant operator has : its coupling grows towards large distances, so it must be tuned to reach the fixed point. An irrelevant operator has and dies away; a marginal operator has and requires higher-order flow analysis. An operator of scaling dimension has .
The coarse spins also require a multiplicative normalization. In continuum notation, writewhere is the retained field and is its anomalous dimension. This restores the normalization of the critical long-distance connected correlation function. Since a uniform field conjugate to an order parameter enters through , it has eigenvalue exponent .
Let be the thermal relevant coordinate with exponent . After regular backgrounds have been removed, the leading singular free-energy density obeysfor a large total scale factor . Choosing gives the scaling hypothesis for critical phenomenaTwo temperature derivatives give the heat-capacity critical exponent; one conjugate-field derivative gives the order-parameter critical exponent; two such derivatives give the magnetic-susceptibility critical exponent. Scaling the correlation length gives . Consequently,At , instead choose ; differentiating gives . These scaling relations for critical exponents assume that irrelevant variables can be set to their fixed-point values without singular consequences. A dangerously irrelevant coupling or logarithmic correction requires keeping the corresponding dependence.
For the Gaussian field theory, integrate out the Fourier modes in and retain . The modes are independent at zero external field, so this Gaussian thinning transformation changes the normalization by a Gaussian determinant and leaves a quadratic statistical Hamiltonian for the retained modes. Restore the cutoff withIn the integrated statistical Hamiltonian, the volume element contributes , each gradient contributes , and each field contributes . Thus the coefficient of the gradient energy is unchanged, whileIn particular , and . The Gaussian critical exponents and the Gaussian order-parameter scaling index therefore give the requested indicesThe sign convention corresponds to the physical conjugate field and does not affect these powers.
There are physical qualifications to these Gaussian indices. The strictly quadratic Gaussian field theory is stable for positive and has no stable ordered phase for negative ; its purported spontaneous is therefore the formal Gaussian order-parameter scaling index. A stabilizing quartic term gives an actual ordered phase. Below four dimensions that term is relevant and changes the exponents; above four dimensions it is a dangerously irrelevant coupling and gives the actual mean-field , rather than the Gaussian hyperscaling value.
The heat capacity power can also be checked directly. Apart from constants, the zero-field Gaussian free-energy density isIf , its singular second temperature derivative is controlled by . For , rescaling gives a power , as above. At there is a logarithm, and for an analytic background dominates the heat capacity. The negative formal Gaussian then describes the subleading singular piece, with logarithmic resonances at appropriate even dimensions. This is the Gaussian specific-heat infrared threshold, and it prevents confusing singular indices with the entire observable.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 50 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use for inverse temperature, to distinguish it from the order-parameter exponent. In a translation-invariant pure thermodynamic phase, the connected correlation function isThe subtraction is essential below the transition. Its exponential correlation length is defined by , with direction specified if the lattice is anisotropic. Away from criticality, has a tail proportional to times an algebraic prefactor. In the massive continuum scalar approximation that prefactor is ; at criticality the exponential cutoff disappears and instead. The large-distance limit here is , as the PDF shows.
Let . With the energy convention , the magnetization per site and magnetic susceptibility areWriting , direct differentiation of the partition function gives . Thus the correlation-function susceptibility sum rule isIn physical continuum coordinates the lattice sum becomes , so omitting the site-density factor would change the normalization. A derivative with respect to the dimensionless source instead absorbs the explicit inverse-temperature factor.
An exact renormalization-group transformation with length factor can be defined by a nonnegative normalized blocking kernel satisfying . A deterministic majority rule is one example; randomized tie-breaking preserves its normalization. Define the blocked energy, including its constant, bySumming over proves . All generated operators must be retained for this identity to remain exact; a finite-coupling truncation is an approximation. After iterations, and the spacing is . Long-distance physics is preserved because this is a marginalization of microscopic probabilities, with observables and sources transformed along with the energy. It integrates short-distance variables rather than changing their effects on retained observables. Physical lengths remain fixed even though the correlation length in units of the new spacing is reduced by .
For clarity, now use dimensionless free energy per site . Exact equality of the partition functions givesA constant microscopic energy shifts every blocked weight by the same factor, so . Substitution at one step yields the additive free-energy recursion under blockingInduction now gives the requested relationThe function is the identity-operator contribution to renormalization-group free energy: it records eliminated-mode entropy, integration constants and normalization factors. A free-energy function satisfying this inhomogeneous equation need not be purely singular until its analytic background has been subtracted.
At a renormalization-group fixed point, . Linearize in scaling coordinates so . Here is a scaling exponent, not the discrete multiplier itself. A positive gives a relevant operator, a negative one an irrelevant operator, and zero a marginal operator. The critical surface is the stable manifold: tune every relevant scaling field to zero and the irrelevant coordinates flow toward . A repulsive renormalization-group trajectory leaves along a relevant direction; it can still have irrelevant coordinates contracting toward that manifold. The plot shows the section when temperature and field are relevant: is the critical line in this section, while an independent nonzero field is another direction away from criticality.
Renormalization-group trajectories near a critical fixed point, showing thermal repulsion and irrelevant contraction in the zero-field section
. Details. The inhomogeneous term cannot simply be discarded from the full free energy. If an analytic background solves , its subtraction leaves obeying homogeneous scaling. For example, in linear thermal and field coordinates, a source monomial is removed byWhen the denominator vanishes, the source is resonant and can instead produce a logarithm. Thus the homogeneous singular equation is justified after analytic subtraction when there is no relevant resonance affecting the leading singularity, no marginal logarithm that has been omitted, and no singular dependence on a dangerously irrelevant coupling. Merely saying that is regular is insufficient to discard the whole weighted sum without this analysis.
Under these assumptions, with two relevant scaling fields , choose so that is of order one. The scaling hypothesis for critical phenomena then givesWriting recovers the PDF's notation:The sign labels the two matching branches and , which enter different phases when the flow leaves the critical neighborhood. The constants retain a branch-dependent identity contribution or a chosen split of the scaling function. They are determined by the same matching problem, not independently adjustable nonuniversal free-energy offsets. An arbitrary analytic offset from belongs to the subtracted background. The formula describes the singular part; adding that background recovers the full physical free energy.
At , restore the common metric factors as . Their ratio at equal is , proving the expected universal singular free-energy amplitude ratio because and cancel. The ratio of full free energies including an arbitrary regular is not universal; zero amplitudes and logarithmic resonances also require separate treatment.
The critical exponents are obtained by rescaling and differentiating, not by identifying them with the discrete multipliers. The correlation length obeys , hence . Two temperature derivatives of give , while one and two field derivatives give the ordered magnetization and susceptibility powers. ThusFor , instead set and choose the blocking scale by , obtaining and then differentiate. A nonzero spontaneous ordered-branch derivative is assumed in the formula for . In particular the hyperscaling relation is . Its physical assumption is an order-one singular free energy per correlation volume, with a single diverging length and no dangerous variable changing its volume scaling. Above the upper critical dimension, a stabilizing quartic coupling can invalidate that assumption even though the correlation length still scales.
For the last model, take the quadratic Hamiltonian exactly as visually printed: its source term is , outside the half multiplying the gradient and mass terms. With and , its connected quadratic covariance is proportional toThe pole scale, or the massive Gaussian field correlation tail obtained by its Fourier transform, givesThe uniform source shifts the mean to and does not change the connected covariance. Replacing by matches the earlier magnetic source convention without changing any scaling index.
Define a Gaussian thinning transformation by retaining momenta , integrating the Gaussian shell, and rescalingThe gradient coefficient is unchanged. Counting volume and field powers in the remaining action givesShell integration contributes only the additive determinant term. Thus when the thermal variable is proportional to , and . Inserting these into the homogeneous index formulas gives the requested Gaussian critical exponentsThe specific-heat power can also be verified without hyperscaling: two mass-squared derivatives of produce an integral proportional to . For , rescaling gives ; at the divergence is logarithmic, with power index zero. At the determinant itself has an additive resonance, although its heat-capacity power remains one.
There is a genuine limitation to the last printed request. The Gaussian order-parameter scaling index is formal: a pure quadratic theory has at , and at the uniform energy is unbounded below, so its partition function diverges. It therefore has no stable ordered branch from which a spontaneous-magnetization exponent can be measured. The thinning derivation establishes the index requested by the PDF, but not a nonexistent ordered phase. A stabilizing quartic interaction is relevant for and generally changes these Gaussian indices to the interacting critical ones.
