Renormalization transformations in the vicinity of first-order phase transitions: What can and cannot go wrong

1991
4 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.Lett. 66 (1991) 3253-3256

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Abstract: (APS)
We reconsider the conceptual foundations of the renormalization-group (RG) formalism. We show that the RG map, defined on a suitable space of interactions, is always single valued and Lipschitz continuous on its domain of definition. This rules out a recently proposed scenario for the RG description of first-order phase transitions. On the other hand, we prove in several cases that near a first-order phase transition the renormalized measure is not a Gibbs measure for any reasonable interaction. It follows that the conventional RG description of first-order transitions is not universally valid.