Integrating out beyond tree level and relativistic superfluids

TL;DR

This paper explores the subtleties of renormalization when deriving low-energy effective actions, focusing on integrating out heavy fields at one loop for superfluid theories and confirming symmetry properties in the effective theory.

Contribution

It provides a detailed method for deriving all-order effective actions in light fields by integrating out heavy modes, including Goldstone bosons, at one loop.

Findings

Derived the one-loop equation of state for superfluid phase of complex  theory.

Confirmed the effective Goldstone theory shows no explicit original symmetry.

Validated the method for integrating out gapped modes in scalar theories.

Abstract

We revisit certain subtleties of renormalization that arise when one derives a low-energy effective action by integrating out the heavy fields of a more complete theory. Usually these subtleties are circumvented by matching some physical observables, such as scattering amplitudes, but a more involved procedure is required if one is interested in deriving the effective theory to all orders in the light fields (but still to fixed order in the derivative expansion). As a concrete example, we study the $U(1)$ Goldstone low-energy effective theory that describes the spontaneously broken phase of a $\phi^4$ theory for a complex scalar. Working to lowest order in the derivative expansion, but to all orders in the Goldstones, we integrate out the radial mode at one loop and express the low-energy effective action in terms of the renormalized couplings of the UV completion. This yields the one-loop equation of state for the superfluid phase of (complex) $\phi^4$. We perform the same analysis for a renormalizable scalar $SO(N)$ theory at finite chemical potential, integrating out the gapped Goldstones as well, and confirm that the effective theory for the gapless Goldstone exhibits no obvious sign of the original $SO(N)$ symmetry.