Wilson-Fisher fixed point

Below four dimensions, the scalar quartic theory has an interacting Wilson-Fisher fixed point that controls the Ising universality class.

This is a particular fixed point of the renormalization group, governing the long-distance behavior of a critical phenomenon.

The scalar Wilson-Fisher fixed point is attractive within its critical surface, but has a relevant thermal direction. With $r=m^2{\Lambda }^{-2}$, $\lambda =g{\Lambda }^{-ϵ}$, and $K_D={\Omega }_D/(2\pi {)}^D$, its one-loop equations are $\dot{r}=2r+K_D\lambda /[2(1+r)]$ and $\dot{\lambda }=ϵ\lambda -3K_D{\lambda }^2/[2(1+r{)}^2]$. Their stability matrix at $r_{\ast }=-ϵ/6+O({ϵ}^2)$ and ${\lambda }_{\ast }=16{\pi }^2ϵ/3+O({ϵ}^2)$ has the displayed eigenvalues. Thus an unrestricted claim of infrared attraction is false: the bare mass must be tuned to the critical surface.

The $O(N)$ model has an $N$-component real field and an orthogonal group symmetry. Its standard Landau-Ginzburg interaction is $g(\mathbf{\varphi }\cdot \mathbf{\varphi }{)}^2$; below the upper critical dimension its continuous transition is governed by an $O(N)$ Wilson-Fisher fixed point.

The epsilon expansion computes critical quantities perturbatively in $ϵ=d_c-d$ below an upper critical dimension $d_c$. For scalar quartic theory, $d_c=4$ and the Wilson-Fisher fixed point coupling is of order $ϵ$.

The quartic interaction $g_1{\varphi }_1^4+g_2{\varphi }_2^4+\lambda {\varphi }_1^2{\varphi }_2^2$ includes the Gaussian fixed point, single and double Ising model Wilson-Fisher fixed points, and an O(N) model fixed point with $N=2$. A rotation of two decoupled identical Ising models produces a second coordinate representation of their renormalization-group fixed point.

The orthogonal transformation ${\psi }_{\pm }=({\varphi }_1\pm {\varphi }_2)/\sqrt{2}$ takes $g({\varphi }_1^4+{\varphi }_2^4+6{\varphi }_1^2{\varphi }_2^2)$ to $2g({\psi }_{+}^4+{\psi }_{-}^4)$. These are the same two decoupled Ising models expressed in rotated fields.