For the sextic Landau free energy , , with linear in reduced temperature, the equation of state is . Its ordered zero-field minimum satisfies , the inverse magnetic susceptibility is below the transition and above, and the critical isotherm satisfies . The minimized singular free-energy density is below and zero above. These facts give the displayed mean-field critical exponents, obeying both the Rushbrooke scaling relation and Widom scaling relation. Both the quadratic and quartic coefficients must be tuned; a generic path with a positive quartic coefficient instead has ordinary critical behavior. Fluctuations change the result below the tricritical upper critical dimension three, and marginal corrections can add logarithms at three.
A further derivative gives the magnetic susceptibility within a selected pure thermodynamic phase:
Assuming a finite nonzero zero-field amplitude on the branch considered, comparison with gives
Together with part (a), this proves the Rushbrooke scaling relation and the Widom scaling relation . Below the transition, use the one-sided response of an ordered phase; differentiating through the cusp of the equilibrium free energy at would include phase switching rather than this critical response.
The scaling hypothesis for critical phenomena describes the singular part of the equilibrium free-energy density, rather than its analytic background. For an isotropic system in spatial dimension , with thermal scaling field and conjugate field , write
This follows from coarse graining near a renormalization-group fixed point: a correlation volume is enlarged by , while the relevant thermal and field perturbations grow with their eigenvalues. Choosing gives
The two functions describe the two sides of the transition. Nonuniversal metric factors multiplying must be allowed when comparing microscopic models. Exponents and suitably normalized scaling functions or amplitude ratios characterize a universality class.
Differentiating the free-energy density gives the order parameter , magnetic susceptibility and singular heat capacity proportional to . Thus
The subscript distinguishes the order-parameter exponent from inverse temperature. At , choose to obtain , with . These derivatives imply the Rushbrooke scaling relation and the Widom scaling relation . Equivalently, the equation of state has , with .
The correlation length scales as , . At criticality the connected correlation function behaves as , giving . Integrating over a correlation volume gives and hence the Fisher scaling relation . The hyperscaling relation expresses one singular free-energy contribution per correlation volume.
These laws organize measurements: plotting against collapses near-critical curves onto the appropriate scaling function. A finite system replaces the divergent length by its size ; the corresponding prediction is under the same scaling assumptions. Finite size rounds a sharp thermodynamic singularity.
The hypothesis has a domain of validity. At a renormalization-group fixed point one generally needs , including other scaling fields. Ordinary irrelevant couplings can be set to zero in a nonsingular limiting scaling function. A dangerously irrelevant coupling cannot: above the upper critical dimension of scalar quartic theory, the quartic term is irrelevant at the Gaussian point but still stabilizes the ordered phase. Consequently naive hyperscaling fails there even though other exponent relations can remain valid. Marginal variables can produce logarithms, anisotropic systems require the appropriate volume exponent, and the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition has an essential correlation-length singularity instead of a finite power-law . Scaling theory relates observables through a small number of fixed-point dimensions; it does not make analytic backgrounds, marginal logarithms or dangerously irrelevant variables disappear.
Use for inverse temperature to distinguish it from the order-parameter exponent. The decaying two-point correlation function needed for the response identity is connected:
Away from the critical point in a short-range Ising model pure phase, the correlation length controls the exponential long-distance falloff, with a possible algebraic prefactor. The full two-spin expectation below the transition instead tends to . The spin-mixture contribution to zero-field susceptibility explains why a symmetric mixture is unsuitable for defining a finite connected correlation length in the ordered phase.
Let be the total Helmholtz free energy. Take magnetization and susceptibility per site, so
Differentiating the Boltzmann weights at fixed temperature gives
Translation invariance then yields the correlation-function susceptibility sum rule
Total magnetization and total susceptibility multiply these expressions by ; per physical volume they have an additional factor relative to the per-site convention. These normalizations do not change the critical powers.
For the subsequent scaling requests, let denote singular free energy per site; the fixed extensive normalization is suppressed. The labels and denote and , with distinct scaling functions and amplitudes on the two sides. Below the transition a one-sided derivative at selects a spontaneous-magnetization branch. Writing , differentiation of the scaling hypothesis for critical phenomena gives
The field-independent makes no contribution to these field derivatives, although it can change heat-capacity amplitudes. Assuming nonzero leading amplitudes and the indicated pure-phase limits, comparison with the exponent definitions gives
This is the Rushbrooke scaling relation. A temperature-independent critical isotherm requires the large- magnetization scaling function to grow as : otherwise would retain a temperature power as at fixed small . Therefore . Since the preceding two equalities also give , the Widom scaling relation follows:
For the hyperscaling relation, additionally assume that one correlation volume supplies an order-one singular free-energy contribution and that there is a single isotropic correlation length, with no dangerously irrelevant coupling spoiling this argument. Then . Two temperature derivatives give the singular heat capacity, so
Hyperscaling is an additional physical assumption, not a consequence of the two-variable equation alone, and generally fails above the upper critical dimension.
Finally the correlation scaling function falls exponentially, up to algebraic factors, for in a massive short-range pure phase. At it approaches a finite nonzero value in the scaling regime. Approximating the lattice sum at distances much larger than , and denoting the area of the unit sphere by , gives
If and the integral has a finite nonzero limiting value, microscopic distances contribute only a regular background and the leading divergence is . Thus the Fisher scaling relation is
These statements concern leading singular powers; logarithmic corrections and cancellations of amplitudes require separate treatment.
Use for inverse temperature, to distinguish it from the order-parameter critical exponent . In a translation-invariant pure thermodynamic phase, the connected two-point correlation function is
For finite correlation length, at it decays exponentially, possibly with an algebraic prefactor; is the asymptotic exponential decay rate. Below an ordered transition the pure phase is selected by taking the thermodynamic limit before or . A zero-field symmetric mixture of the two ordered phases has a nondecaying connected term and does not describe the usual pure-phase magnetic susceptibility.
Let denote extensive physical free energy and . Since the field contributes to the statistical Hamiltonian, differentiation gives
Expanding the variance and using translation invariance proves the correlation-function susceptibility sum rule:
The sum includes . If the source is instead defined as the dimensionless quantity , the corresponding derivative omits the displayed inverse-temperature factor.
A real-space renormalization group step of length factor uses a local blocking kernel satisfying . For example, a deterministic majority-spin rule assigns one coarse Ising spin to each block; tied blocks can be resolved with equal probabilities. Define the blocked statistical Hamiltonian by
The spacing becomes . All generated interactions, including multispin terms and the field-independent constant, must be retained for an exact transformation. Summing over uses normalization to prove . Iteration gives and .
The coarse probability law is the exact marginal law of these block variables. Indeed, for any coarse observable , its expected value is the microscopic expected value of . A blocking rule that retains the long-wavelength order-parameter mode, with source and observable transformations tracked, therefore retains long-distance response and correlation functions. Their field normalization may change, while their physical length scales and critical singularities do not. Partition-function equality alone would not justify this assertion for an arbitrary kernel that discards all slow variables. Truncating the generated operator family is likewise an approximation.
For the free-energy recursion use dimensionless free energy per site,
in the thermodynamic limit. Exact partition-function invariance gives . If one step sends to , the coefficient records the identity-operator contribution from eliminated fluctuations and normalization. Consequently
Repeated substitution derives the additive free-energy recursion under blocking:
In physical energy units, divide this convention by . The additive term is essential for absolute free energies even when it does not affect the leading critical powers.
A renormalization-group fixed point satisfies . Linearize in scaling coordinates so that . A relevant operator has , an irrelevant operator has , and a marginal operator has with behaviour decided by nonlinear terms. Thus the eigenvalues of the discrete linear map are ; the sign criterion applies to the generator exponents , not to the discrete multipliers. The critical surface is the stable manifold on which every relevant scaling field has been tuned away. Irrelevant coordinates flow to the renormalization-group fixed point along it. A repulsive renormalization-group trajectory leaves the renormalization-group fixed point along an unstable relevant direction, ultimately entering a noncritical phase or another scaling regime.
Figure 1.
Local renormalization-group flow in the zero-field slice: attraction along the critical surface and repulsion in the thermal direction
. Details.
To separate the singular free-energy density from its regular background, suppose the eliminated-mode contribution is analytic near the renormalization-group fixed point. Look for an analytic background satisfying . Then satisfies . In linear thermal and field coordinates, an analytic monomial has background coefficient
provided the denominator is nonzero. This explicitly explains when analytic subtraction of an inhomogeneous renormalization recursion works. The printed inhomogeneous equation may describe the free-energy function before this subtraction, or a singular part defined only up to analytic terms. The inhomogeneous sum need not be small compared with the full free energy: an analytic constant can dominate a vanishing singular contribution. It can be omitted in deriving leading singular powers after regular subtraction, provided no renormalization-group free-energy resonance, marginal logarithm or dangerously irrelevant coupling obstructs the homogeneous critical asymptotics. At a renormalization-group free-energy resonance , additive logarithms can remain, so simply dropping the term would miss them.
Suppose there are exactly two relevant scaling fields, thermal and magnetic , with positive exponents , and the remaining fields approach a regular limit. Physical reduced temperature and magnetic field agree with these coordinates to leading order, up to nonuniversal metric factors. The homogeneous scaling hypothesis for critical phenomena is
as an asymptotic scaling equation. Choose to make the thermal argument or . Defining gives
The two functions describe respectively and : approaching the transition from disordered and ordered sides need not give the same function. In particular the ordered zero-field function has one-sided derivatives associated with spontaneous magnetization. Metric factors multiply this formula in different microscopic normalizations.
The correlation length in Bravais lattice units obeys . At , the same choice of gives . Two thermal derivatives of give . One and two field derivatives give, respectively, and , assuming the relevant branch amplitudes are nonzero. At , choose ; then , so . Hence
Simple algebra now gives the Rushbrooke scaling relation and the hyperscaling relation . Also , giving the Widom scaling relation. These statements refer to leading singular contributions with the homogeneous two-field scaling assumptions. Above the upper critical dimension, the quartic coupling is dangerously irrelevant because it is still needed to stabilize the ordered phase; ordinary mean-field critical exponents then satisfy Rushbrooke and Widom but generally not hyperscaling. Marginal logarithms also require qualifications at the upper critical dimension.
For the connected-correlation scaling form , the function tends to a finite nonzero value as and decays exponentially at large , up to powers of , in a massive short-range phase. The scaling ansatz alone does not fix that prefactor. If the usual massive Gaussian field correlation tail applies, matching the powers gives , with a correlation-length-dependent amplitude in fixed by matching the critical scaling form.
In physical coordinates the lattice sum has site-density factor . Its long-distance singular part therefore gives
where is the area of the unit sphere in dimensions. For , finite , an integrable exponential tail and a nonzero integral, the last factor tends to a finite nonzero constant as . Microscopic distances contribute a regular background. Thus , proving the Fisher scaling relation
Equivalently the field has scaling dimension , so its conjugate field has , which gives the same identity from the exponent formulas above.
The scaling hypothesis for critical phenomena says that the singular equilibrium free-energy density is a generalized homogeneous function of the thermal and field variables, after analytic backgrounds are removed. To derive the ordinary mean-field form, put , and neglect the higher powers near the transition. Rescale . Minimizing the quartic potential becomes
This is the mean-field scalar free-energy scaling form with , . The two functions correspond to and ; the latter has two pure-phase branches and a cusp at zero field. The question's and subscripts distinguish these temperatures above and below .
Differentiating with respect to gives on an ordered pure branch, and differentiating again gives . Thus the displayed scaling form independently yields and .
To allow anomalous powers, replace it by
Then and . Taking at fixed small gives , so . Eliminating proves the Rushbrooke scaling relation and Widom scaling relation:
These power-law relations assume the simple scaling form; marginal corrections or dangerously irrelevant couplings can require additional scaling variables.
Use a selected translationally invariant pure thermodynamic phase and define the connected lattice correlation function
Away from criticality its long-distance tail has an exponential factor , possibly multiplied by a power. Equivalently when this limit exists; different directions can have different lengths on an anisotropic lattice. At a thermodynamic critical point the correlation length diverges and the tail becomes algebraic. Differentiate with respect to the physical field appearing in the energy Statistical Hamiltonian. With , the correlation-function susceptibility sum rule is
In physical continuum coordinates the sum becomes . Differentiating with respect to the dimensionless source instead removes the explicit inverse-temperature factor. Below the transition, take a one-sided pure-phase limit rather than a macroscopic symmetric mixture.
A normalized blocking kernel assigns a probability or a delta constraint to a coarse configuration for each microscopic one, with . Define the blocked Boltzmann weight by
Summing over proves exact equality of the partition functions. Repeated real-space renormalization group steps compose the kernels and integrate out shorter-scale variables. To retain equality one must keep all generated interactions and the field-independent constant; a finite truncation is an approximation. Long-distance observables are mapped through the corresponding coarse observables, not identified blindly with microscopic spins. In physical units,
A subsequent coordinate rescaling restores the reference lattice spacing while expressing couplings in cutoff units.
Let be free energy per microscopic site. Invariance of gives
The constant transforms as . Therefore, with , the identity-operator contribution to renormalization-group free energy gives
The second equality follows by substitution and induction. The inhomogeneous term records eliminated-mode entropy, determinants, and normalization factors, all multiplying the identity operator; it is not an interaction with the retained spins. Strictly, this can contain regular background terms. After an analytic subtraction of an inhomogeneous renormalization recursion, the genuinely singular part satisfies the homogeneous scaling equation, except for possible logarithmic resonances.
A renormalization-group fixed point satisfies . Linearize in scaling coordinates : . A relevant operator has , an irrelevant operator has , and a marginal operator has and needs nonlinear analysis. These are logarithmic scaling eigenvalues; the discrete Jacobian eigenvalues are , not . The critical surface is the stable manifold obtained by tuning all relevant coordinates to zero. A repulsive renormalization-group trajectory leaves the fixed point along a relevant direction as the coarse-graining length grows. Stable and unstable manifolds become curved away from linear order.
Figure 1.
Linear renormalization-group flows: attraction along a critical surface and repulsion in two relevant directions
. Details.
The left section has , one irrelevant coordinate and a relevant thermal coordinate . Its critical surface is in that section. With two relevant variables, the full critical surface has codimension two: the second section shows repulsion in the plane at .
Assume an isolated fixed point with two relevant scaling fields, analytic changes from physical controls to , short-range isotropic scaling, no dangerously irrelevant variable in the thermodynamic scaling function, and no marginal or resonant logarithm. Let denote their scaling eigenvalues. The homogeneous singular free-energy density obeys
Choose a stopping scale so the renormalized thermal field is order one. Irrelevant fields vanish at this scale. With and ,
Continuous scale interpolation absorbs the immaterial integer stopping-scale convention. Nonuniversal thermal, field and free-energy metric factors can be included explicitly; the normalized functions depend only on the universality class. The and labels refer to and , which flow to different sides of the critical surface.
For clarity about the additive terms, let solve . If , its analytic coefficients are
provided the denominators do not vanish. Subtracting makes the recursion homogeneous. A vanishing denominator is a resonance and generically produces logarithms, which the simple power-law hypothesis excludes. In a convention where the regular field-dependent background has been subtracted, write and . This yields the requested form
The contain branch-dependent matching contributions; only is physically determined. The are nonsingular functions analytic through the thermodynamic critical point and represent the same regular Taylor background on the two sides, though either branch may be used to describe them. For the full free energy at nonzero field, the regular background is generally , not just . Adding an analytic identity-operator contribution proportional to provides a direct counterexample to an exact unrestricted formula; it changes no singular exponents. The printed expression is justified for the leading singular scaling form with that analytic field background removed. Confluent corrections from irrelevant fields are also omitted in this leading form.
Differentiate the singular scaling form, with one-sided derivatives in the ordered phase. It gives
The length transforms as , so . Thus the Rushbrooke scaling relation and hyperscaling relation follow by direct substitution:
The same reasoning also gives . Hyperscaling relation relies on the assumptions above and can fail above an upper critical dimension because of a stabilizing dangerously irrelevant coupling.
For the universal specific-heat amplitude ratio, write at . Two temperature derivatives multiply both branches by the same dimensional and thermal metric factors. Away from logarithmic resonances and exceptional zero amplitudes, with the same heat-capacity sign convention on both sides. Hence
The functions and their matched branch constants are tied to the fixed-point theory; the constants are not independent arbitrary experimental parameters. If , this means the amplitudes of the subleading singular contribution after subtracting the analytic specific-heat background. A finite background ratio itself need not be universal.
The scaling hypothesis for critical phenomena says that the singular part of the equilibrium free energy is a generalized homogeneous function of its thermal and field-like controls. Smooth backgrounds must first be removed; the hypothesis does not claim that the entire free energy, including arbitrary regular terms, has a pure scaling form.
For the ordinary scalar quartic LG theory, set with and , and rescale the uniform order parameter as
The order-parameter-dependent free-energy density becomes
Define as the minimum of the braces, with the sign of the quadratic term respectively positive or negative. Consequently
For an extensive , additionally contains the system volume. The printed double-inequality subscript labels the two temperature branches: the upper-temperature function is and the lower-temperature function is . It does not classify positive and negative magnetic fields. In particular and ; below the transition the field dependence has a cusp at zero, so derivatives are taken on a selected branch.
For the following derivatives, take to be a density, so is the magnetization density; for total free energy the derivative gives total magnetization instead. Differentiate this mean-field scalar free-energy scaling form. The magnetization is , giving and . The magnetic susceptibility is , giving . At zero field the nonzero curvature amplitudes are and .
To allow nonclassical critical exponents, replace the fixed powers by
The heat-capacity critical exponent is defined by ; temperature differentiation gives the thermal exponent in . The order-parameter critical exponent has , and the magnetic-susceptibility critical exponent has . Differentiating the scaling form gives
Eliminating proves the Rushbrooke scaling relation
The critical-isotherm exponent is defined by . At fixed small , the limit requires , so that the temperature factors cancel. Therefore , yielding . But the two differentiated identities also give , and hence the Widom scaling relation
These are relations among the leading power indices. At marginal dimensions, multiplicative logarithms can accompany them, and an additive analytic background must not be mistaken for the singular scaling contribution.
These are mean-field critical exponents at a tricritical point. Hold the other control at its tricritical value and take the coefficients to be real analytic functions of temperature along a thermal approach with , , , and or . At fixed tricritical , a generic real analytic temperature path with nonzero thermal slope has and meets the last condition. Paths tangent to a scaling direction can have different apparent temperature powers.
At zero field on the ordered side with , stationarity gives ; under the more general approach , this relation holds to leading order. Thus the order-parameter critical exponent is
For the zero-quartic representative, putting this minimum into the Landau free energy gives the singular order-parameter contribution (and the leading asymptotic contribution under the stated negligible-quartic approach)
Using at fixed other control yields , specifically to leading order. Hence
This heat-capacity critical exponent refers to the nonzero ordered-side singular amplitude; in this mean-field approximation to Landau theory, the disordered global minimum contributes zero singular free energy, while any regular background remains. Fluctuation corrections lie outside the present approximation.
In the disordered phase, differentiating the equation of state at gives the magnetic susceptibility . On the ordered branch its curvature is , so . Both give the magnetic-susceptibility critical exponent
At the tricritical temperature with both lower coefficients zero, , so and the critical-isotherm exponent is
The Widom scaling relation and Rushbrooke scaling relation both check these powers. Their validity here is a mean-field conclusion, not a claim that fluctuations in every spatial dimension preserve them.
The ordered solution gives
so the order-parameter critical exponent is
At , adding a magnetic term gives , hence
Above , the zero-field susceptibility is . Below , the curvature at a minimum is , so both sides give
At the ordered minimum, and
Since , the heat-capacity critical exponent is
These values obey the Widom scaling relation and Rushbrooke scaling relation at mean-field level.