Phase Transitions in Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory

Author(s):  
J. Fröhlich ◽  
T. Spencer
2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 1079-1105
Author(s):  
Rahul Nigam

In this review we study the elementary structure of Conformal Field Theory in which is a recipe for further studies of critical behavior of various systems in statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. We briefly review CFT in dimensions which plays a prominent role for example in the well-known duality AdS/CFT in string theory where the CFT lives on the AdS boundary. We also describe the mapping of the theory from the cylinder to a complex plane which will help us gain an insight into the process of radial quantization and radial ordering. Finally we will develop the representation of the Virasoro algebra which is the well-known "Verma module".  


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  

Using resurgence theory to describe phase transitions in quantum field theory shows that information on non-perturbative effects like phase transitions can be obtained from a perturbative series expansion.


Author(s):  
Jean Zinn-Justin

Some equilibrium properties in statistical quantum field theory (QFT), that is, relativistic QFT at finite temperature are reviewed. Study of QFT at finite temperature is motivated by cosmological problems, high energy heavy ion collisions, and speculations about possible phase transitions, also searched for in numerical simulations. In particular, the situation of finite temperature phase transitions, or the limit of high temperature (an ultra-relativistic limit where the temperature is much larger than the physical masses of particles) are discussed. The concept of dimensional reduction emerges, in many cases, statistical properties of finite-temperature QFT in (1, d − 1) dimensions can be described by an effective classical statistical field theory in (d − 1) dimensions. Dimensional reduction generalizes a property already observed in the non-relativistic example of the Bose gas, and indicates that quantum effects are less important at high temperature. The corresponding technical tools are a mode-expansion of fields in the Euclidean time variable, singling out the zero modes of boson fields, followed by a local expansion of the resulting (d − 1)-dimensional effective field theory (EFT). Additional physical intuition about QFT at finite temperature in (1, d−1) dimensions can be gained by considering it as a classical statistical field theory in d dimensions, with finite size in one dimension. This identification makes an analysis of finite temperature QFT in terms of the renormalization group (RG), and the theory of finite-size effects of the classical theory, possible. These ideas are illustrated with several simple examples, the φ4 field theory, the non-linear σ-model, the Gross–Neveu model and some gauge theories.


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