Random vector and matrix and vector theories: a renormalization group approach

TL;DR

This paper explores the application of renormalization group methods to random vector and matrix models, revealing universal algebraic equations for fixed points, aiming to better understand critical phenomena in quantum gravity analogs.

Contribution

It extends renormalization group ideas to vector models and compares them with matrix models, uncovering universal algebraic equations for fixed points at leading order.

Findings

Universal algebraic equations for fixed points in vector and matrix models

Renormalization group approach reveals common structures across models

Potential insights into critical phenomena in quantum gravity models

Abstract

Random matrices in the large N expansion and the so-called double scaling limit can be used as toy models for quantum gravity: 2D quantum gravity coupled to conformal matter. This has generated a tremendous expansion of random matrix theory, tackled with increasingly sophisticated mathematical methods and number of matrix models have been solved exactly. However, the somewhat paradoxical situation is that either models can be solved exactly or little can be said. Since the solved models display critical points and universal properties, it is tempting to use renormalization group ideas to determine universal properties, without solving models explicitly. Initiated by Br\'ezin and Zinn-Justin, the approach has led to encouraging results, first for matrix integrals and then quantum mechanics with matrices, but has not yet become a universal tool as initially hoped. In particular, general quantum field theories with matrix fields require more detailed investigations. To better understand some of the encountered difficulties, we first apply analogous ideas to the simpler O(N) symmetric vector models, models that can be solved quite generally in the large N limit. Unlike other attempts, our method is a close extension of Br\'ezin and Zinn-Justin. Discussing vector and matrix models with similar approximation scheme, we notice that in all cases (vector and matrix integrals, vector and matrix path integrals in the local approximation), at leading order, non-trivial fixed points satisfy the same universal algebraic equation, and this is the main result of this work. However, its precise meaning and role have still to be better understood.