Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2024 / iii / Paper 337 / 1

The conserved number operator isSubstitution of $\Psi =\sqrt{\rho }{e}^{-i\theta }$ into the Landau-Ginzburg theory givesThe imaginary term is a total derivative, soThus $\rho$ is the number density and is the canonical momentum conjugate to $\theta$. The canonical commutation relation is $[\theta (\mathbf{x}),\rho (\mathbf{y})]=i{\delta }^{(d)}(\mathbf{x}-\mathbf{y})$. Consequently, for ${\theta }_0=\int d^{d}x\theta$ in volume $V$,Equivalently, the averaged phase $\bar{\theta }={\theta }_0/V$ obeys $\Delta \bar{\theta }\Delta N\ge 1/2$. This number-phase conjugacy means that a state of sharp $N$ has no sharp phase, whereas a phase-selected state exhibiting spontaneous symmetry breaking must superpose different number sectors. Such sectors become effectively degenerate in the thermodynamic limit.

Stability requires $\lambda >0$. The classical potential $r\rho +\lambda {\rho }^2$ has a symmetry-breaking minimum when $r<0$, atWriting $\rho =\bar{\rho }+\delta \rho$ and discarding constants and total derivatives gives the quadratic LagrangianThe density fluctuation is a gapped amplitude mode, while the phase is the prospective Goldstone boson.

The quadratic path integral isIntroduce the positive spatial operatorCompleting the square in the Gaussian functional integral over $\delta \rho$ yieldsThe derivative expansion $A^{-1}=(2\lambda {)}^{-1}+O({\nabla }^2)$ therefore givesThis is the long-wavelength Goldstone boson action. Keeping the spatial derivative in $A$ gives ${\omega }^2=v^2{k}^2+k^4/(4m^2)$.

For bosonic Matsubara frequencies ${\omega }_n=2\pi nT$, set $a=vk/(2\pi T)$. Applying the residue theorem to $\pi \coth (\pi z)/(z^2+a^2)$, whose integer poles reproduce the desired summands, givesIt follows thatUsing the area $S_{d-1}=2{\pi }^{d/2}/\Gamma (d/2)$ of the unit sphere, the thermal phase fluctuation becomesAt small $k$, $\coth (vk/(2T))\sim 2T/(vk)$, so the infrared divergence is governed by ${\int }_{0}dk{k}^{d-3}$. It diverges for $d=1,2$ and is finite for $d=3$. Therefore short-range systems cannot have true finite-temperature breaking of this continuous symmetry in one or two dimensions, in agreement with the Mermin-Wagner theorem, whereas it is allowed in three dimensions. In two dimensions a Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition may still produce quasi-long-range order.

Subtract the zero-temperature term by using $\coth (x/2)=1+2/(e^x-1)$. In three dimensions the thermal part iswhere the last integral uses the Bose-Einstein distribution. Gaussian phase fluctuations reduce the order parameter by $⟨e^{-i\theta }⟩=e^{-⟨{\theta }^2⟩/2}$. Taking symmetry restoration to occur when the thermal variance is of order one givesThe effective action in part c has $\chi =1/(2\lambda )$, and hence $T_{\ast }\sim \sqrt{6v^3/\lambda }$. This is an order-of-magnitude estimate because near restoration the phase-only effective field theory omits large amplitude fluctuations and sensitivity to its ultraviolet cutoff.