Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 49 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Take a positive gradient coefficient , a positive squared mass, a finite-volume regulator and an ultraviolet cutoff. Use the dimensionless statistical action convention : inverse temperature is absorbed into the coefficients. If denotes dimensional energy instead, the exponent below gains a factor and the covariance gains . These conventions cannot be mixed.
Choose the Fourier transform conventionIntegration of the quadratic gradient and source terms givesComplete the square with . Translation of the regulated real Gaussian variables leaves their measure unchanged, so the Gaussian integral givesHere is the source-free Gaussian partition function. For independent regulated real coordinates and a positive quadratic matrix , it is under Lebesgue normalization. The continuum determinant needs the stated regulator and a measure convention. Reality pairs the nonzero Fourier modes, so they must not be counted as two independent real fields.
A connected correlation function subtracts the product of the means. The logarithm generates its cumulants: differentiating twice with respect to the source, using the measure in the functional derivative convention, yieldsThe source changes the mean but not the covariance; the stated zero-source limit therefore follows immediately. Momentum conservation uses , appropriate for a real field without complex conjugation on either displayed factor.
For the continuum massive Gaussian field correlation tail, set and . Fourier inversion givesThe large-argument Modified Bessel function of the second kind has . Hence is proportional to at large distance andAt zero mass the exponential length diverges. For the critical continuum tail is algebraic, ; in lower dimensions infrared regulation needs additional care.
For a uniform source , perform a momentum-shell renormalization group step: separate slow modes and fast modes . In a Gaussian field theory they decouple; the uniform source couples only to the retained zero mode. Integrating fast modes contributes only a field-independent determinant to the free energy. Restore the cutoff by , andThe factors from the measure, gradient and two fields cancel in the gradient term. The mass term gains , and the linear source gains . ThereforeHere is the positive mass; for signed thermal coordinates it is the squared-mass relation that applies. The Gaussian fixed point has thermal scaling eigenvalue , source eigenvalue and zero anomalous dimension.
Under the formal homogeneous Gaussian scaling hypothesis, substitution of those eigenvalues givesThe last two values are independently visible in and , agreeing with Landau-Ginzburg theory. The specific-heat power follows directly from the determinant: after two thermal derivatives its singular contribution is proportional toThe change of variables proves this power because the rescaled integral converges at large exactly when . The two-dimensional free energy itself has a resonance, while its second derivative still has the indicated power.
The printed magnetization exponent is a formal Gaussian scaling index, not a proved ordered-phase law of the purely quadratic model. The ordered-phase obstruction in a Gaussian scalar model is explicit: the uniform field has energy density . At it tends to as , and the partition function diverges. For , the mean is and tends to zero as , so there is no spontaneously ordered branch. Thus no literal for can be established from this Statistical Hamiltonian alone. The value follows from the scaling dimension of the field if one assumes such a branch; for its nonpositive value further warns against that interpretation. Adding a stabilizing quartic interaction defines an ordered phase, but below four dimensions that interaction is relevant and generally leads to the Wilson-Fisher fixed point, not these Gaussian thermodynamic powers.
For the Gaussian specific-heat infrared threshold, at the same determinant integral grows like , so as a power exponent, with a logarithmic divergence. For , it has a finite cutoff-dependent limit; the leading heat capacity is a regular constant and has no divergent power, again described by in the requested convention. After subtraction of this background the Gaussian singular term can still have the negative power index ; it is not correct to erase that distinction. In a stable quartic Landau-Ginzburg theory above four dimensions, the quartic coefficient is a dangerously irrelevant coupling: it is needed for the ordered phase and contributes , giving the mean-field specific-heat jump and while invalidating naive hyperscaling relation. At four dimensions, marginal interactions can add further logarithmic corrections. The agreement with Landau theory is in the leading heat-capacity power; it does not assert the absence of logarithms or supply a missing stable Gaussian ordered phase.