Renormalization group theory for fermions and order parameter fluctuations in interacting Fermi systems

Abstract

The physics of interacting Fermi systems is extremely sensitive to the energy scale. Of particular interest is the low energy regime where correlation induced collective behavior emerges. The theory of interacting Fermi systems is confronted with the occurrence of very different phenomena along a continuum of scales calling for methods capable of computing physical observables as a function of energy scale. In this thesis, we perform a comprehensive renormalization group analysis of two and three-dimensional Fermi systems at low and zero temperature. We examine systems with spontaneous symmetry-breaking and quantum critical behavior by deriving and solving flow equations within the functional renormalization group framework. We extend the Hertz-Millis theory of quantumphase transitions in itinerant fermion systems to phases with discrete and continuous symmetry-breaking, and to quantum critical points where the zero temperature theory is associated with a non-Gaussian fixed point. The order parameter is implemented by a bosonic Hubbard-Stratonovich field, which - for continuous symmetry-breaking - splits into two components corresponding to longitudinal and transversal Goldstone fluctuations. We compute the finite temperature phase boundary near the quantum critical point explicitly including non-Gaussian fluctuations. We then set up a coupled fermion-boson renormalization group theory that captures the mutual interplay of gapless fermions with massless order parameter fluctuations when approaching a quantum critical point. As a first application, we compute the complete set of quantum critical exponents at the semimetal-to-superfluid quantum phase transition of attractively interacting Dirac fermions in two dimensions. Both, the order parameter propagator and the fermion propagator become nonanalytic functions of momenta destroying the Fermi liquid behavior. We finally compute the effects of quantum fluctuations in the superfluid ground state of an attractively interacting Fermi system, employing the attractive Hubbard model as a prototype. The flow equations capture the influence of longitudinal and Goldstone order parameter fluctuations on non-universal quantities such as the fermionic gap and the fermion-boson vertex, as well as the exact universal infrared asymptotics present in every fermionic superfluid.

Die vorliegende Dissertation entwickelt Renormierungsgruppenstrategien zur Berechnung makroskopischer Eigenschaften von wechselwirkenden Fermi-Systemen. Besonders das Verhalten bei niederen Energien ist interessant, da hier wechselwirkungsinduzierte, kollektive Phänomene auftreten. Durch Herleitung und Lösung von Renormierungsgruppengleichungen analysieren wir in dieser Arbeit den Einfluss von Ordnungsparameterfluktuationen auf thermodynamische Observable und Korrelationsfunktionen in Fermi-Systemen mit spontaner Symmetriebrechung und quantenkritischem Verhalten.