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Ultraviolet Fixed Point
In a quantum field theory, one may calculate an effective or running coupling constant that defines the coupling of the theory measured at a given momentum scale. One example of such a coupling constant is the electric charge. In approximate calculations in several quantum field theories, notably quantum electrodynamics and theories of the Higgs particle, the running coupling appears to become infinite at a finite momentum scale. This is sometimes called the ''Landau pole problem''. It is not known whether the appearance of these inconsistencies is an artifact of the approximation, or a real fundamental problem in the theory. However, the problem can be avoided if an ultraviolet or UV fixed point appears in the theory. A quantum field theory has a UV fixed point if its renormalization group flow approaches a fixed point in the ultraviolet (i.e. short length scale/large energy) limit. This is related to zeroes of the beta-function appearing in the Callan–Symanzik equation. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Field Theory
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and in condensed matter physics to construct models of quasiparticles. QFT treats particles as excited states (also called Quantum, quanta) of their underlying quantum field (physics), fields, which are more fundamental than the particles. The equation of motion of the particle is determined by minimization of the Lagrangian, a functional of fields associated with the particle. Interactions between particles are described by interaction terms in the Lagrangian (field theory), Lagrangian involving their corresponding quantum fields. Each interaction can be visually represented by Feynman diagrams according to perturbation theory (quantum mechanics), perturbation theory in quantum mechanics. History Quantum field theory emerged from the wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trivial Fixed Point
A Gaussian fixed point is a fixed point of the renormalization group flow which is noninteracting in the sense that it is described by a free field theory. The word Gaussian comes from the fact that the probability distribution is Gaussian at the Gaussian fixed point. This means that Gaussian fixed points are exactly solvable ( trivially solvable in fact). Slight deviations from the Gaussian fixed point can be described by perturbation theory. See also *UV fixed point * IR fixed point *Quantum triviality In a quantum field theory, charge screening can restrict the value of the observable "renormalized" charge of a classical theory. If the only resulting value of the renormalized charge is zero, the theory is said to be "trivial" or noninteracting. ... References Renormalization group Statistical mechanics {{statisticalmechanics-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statistical Mechanics
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic behavior of nature from the behavior of such ensembles. Statistical mechanics arose out of the development of classical thermodynamics, a field for which it was successful in explaining macroscopic physical properties—such as temperature, pressure, and heat capacity—in terms of microscopic parameters that fluctuate about average values and are characterized by probability distributions. This established the fields of statistical thermodynamics and statistical physics. The founding of the field of statistical mechanics is generally credited to three physicists: *Ludwig Boltzmann, who developed the fundamental interpretation of entropy in terms of a collection of microstates *James Clerk Maxwell, who developed models of probability distr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asymptotic Freedom
In quantum field theory, asymptotic freedom is a property of some gauge theories that causes interactions between particles to become asymptotically weaker as the energy scale increases and the corresponding length scale decreases. Asymptotic freedom is a feature of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the quantum field theory of the strong interaction between quarks and gluons, the fundamental constituents of nuclear matter. Quarks interact weakly at high energies, allowing perturbative calculations. At low energies, the interaction becomes strong, leading to the confinement of quarks and gluons within composite hadrons. The asymptotic freedom of QCD was discovered in 1973 by David Gross and Frank Wilczek, and independently by David Politzer in the same year. For this work all three shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics. Discovery Asymptotic freedom in QCD was discovered in 1973 by David Gross and Frank Wilczek, and independently by David Politzer in the same year. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Triviality
In a quantum field theory, charge screening can restrict the value of the observable "renormalized" charge of a classical theory. If the only resulting value of the renormalized charge is zero, the theory is said to be "trivial" or noninteracting. Thus, surprisingly, a classical theory that appears to describe interacting particles can, when realized as a quantum field theory, become a "trivial" theory of noninteracting free particles. This phenomenon is referred to as quantum triviality. Strong evidence supports the idea that a field theory involving only a scalar Higgs boson is trivial in four spacetime dimensions, but the situation for realistic models including other particles in addition to the Higgs boson is not known in general. Nevertheless, because the Higgs boson plays a central role in the Standard Model of particle physics, the question of triviality in Higgs models is of great importance. This Higgs triviality is similar to the Landau pole problem in quantum electrodyn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asymptotic Safety In Quantum Gravity
Asymptotic safety (sometimes also referred to as nonperturbative renormalizability) is a concept in quantum field theory which aims at finding a consistent and predictive quantum theory of the gravitational field. Its key ingredient is a nontrivial fixed point of the theory's renormalization group flow which controls the behavior of the coupling constants in the ultraviolet (UV) regime and renders physical quantities safe from divergences. Although originally proposed by Steven Weinberg to find a theory of quantum gravity, the idea of a nontrivial fixed point providing a possible UV completion can be applied also to other field theories, in particular to perturbatively nonrenormalizable ones. In this respect, it is similar to quantum triviality. The essence of asymptotic safety is the observation that nontrivial renormalization group fixed points can be used to generalize the procedure of perturbative renormalization. In an asymptotically safe theory the couplings do no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Gravity
Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vicinity of black holes or similar compact astrophysical objects, such as neutron stars. Three of the four fundamental forces of physics are described within the framework of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. The current understanding of the fourth force, gravity, is based on Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which is formulated within the entirely different framework of classical physics. However, that description is incomplete: describing the gravitational field of a black hole in the general theory of relativity leads physical quantities, such as the spacetime curvature, to diverge at the center of the black hole. This signals the breakdown of the general theory of relativity and the need for a theory that goes b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ultraviolet Divergence
In physics, an ultraviolet divergence or UV divergence is a situation in which an integral, for example a Feynman diagram, diverges because of contributions of objects with unbounded energy, or, equivalently, because of physical phenomena at infinitesimal distances. Overview Since an infinite result is unphysical, ultraviolet divergences often require special treatment to remove unphysical effects inherent in the perturbative formalisms. In particular, UV divergences can often be removed by regularization and renormalization. Successful resolution of an ultraviolet divergence is known as ultraviolet completion. If they cannot be removed, they imply that the theory is not perturbatively well-defined at very short distances. The name comes from the earliest example of such a divergence, the "ultraviolet catastrophe" first encountered in understanding blackbody radiation. According to classical physics at the end of the nineteenth century, the quantity of radiation in the form of l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Weinberg
Steven Weinberg (; May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles. He held the Josey Regental Chair in Science at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments. His research on elementary particles and physical cosmology was honored with numerous prizes and awards, including the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics and the 1991 National Medal of Science. In 2004, he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society, with a citation that said he was "considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive in the world today." He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Britain's Royal Society, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Weinb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Scaling Dimension
In theoretical physics, the scaling dimension, or simply dimension, of a local operator in a quantum field theory characterizes the rescaling properties of the operator under spacetime dilations x\to \lambda x. If the quantum field theory is scale invariant, scaling dimensions of operators are fixed numbers, otherwise they are functions of the distance scale. Scale-invariant quantum field theory In a scale invariant quantum field theory, by definition each operator ''O'' acquires under a dilation x\to \lambda x a factor \lambda^, where \Delta is a number called the scaling dimension of ''O''. This implies in particular that the two point correlation function \langle O(x) O(0)\rangle depends on the distance as (x^2)^. More generally, correlation functions of several local operators must depend on the distances in such a way that \langle O_1(\lambda x_1) O_2(\lambda x_2)\ldots\rangle= \lambda^\langle O_1(x_1) O_2(x_2)\ldots\rangle Most scale invariant theories are also conformal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonrenormalizable
Renormalization is a collection of techniques in quantum field theory, the statistical mechanics of fields, and the theory of self-similarity, self-similar geometric structures, that are used to treat infinity, infinities arising in calculated quantities by altering values of these quantities to compensate for effects of their self-interactions. But even if no infinities arose in One-loop Feynman diagram, loop diagrams in quantum field theory, it could be shown that it would be necessary to renormalize the mass and fields appearing in the original Lagrangian (field theory), Lagrangian. For example, an electron theory may begin by postulating an electron with an initial mass and charge. In quantum field theory a cloud of virtual particles, such as photons, positrons, and others surrounds and interacts with the initial electron. Accounting for the interactions of the surrounding particles (e.g. collisions at different energies) shows that the electron-system behaves as if it had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asymptotic Safety
Asymptotic safety (sometimes also referred to as nonperturbative renormalizability) is a concept in quantum field theory which aims at finding a consistent and predictive quantum theory of the gravitational field. Its key ingredient is a nontrivial fixed point of the theory's renormalization group flow which controls the behavior of the coupling constants in the ultraviolet (UV) regime and renders physical quantities safe from divergences. Although originally proposed by Steven Weinberg to find a theory of quantum gravity, the idea of a nontrivial fixed point providing a possible UV completion can be applied also to other field theories, in particular to perturbatively nonrenormalizable ones. In this respect, it is similar to quantum triviality. The essence of asymptotic safety is the observation that nontrivial renormalization group fixed points can be used to generalize the procedure of perturbative renormalization. In an asymptotically safe theory the couplings do not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
