Renormalization group

In physics, the term renormalization refers to a variety of theoretical concepts and computational techniques revolving either around the idea of rescaling transformations, or around the process of removing infinities from the calculated quantities (see also regularization). Renormalization in more or less its modern form originated in quantum field theory, where it is usually credited to Julian Schwinger, Shin'ichiro Tomonaga, Richard Feynman, and Freeman Dyson. An alternative formulation suitable for statistical field theory was later given by Wilson and Kadanoff.

Related Topics:
Physics - Renormalization - Regularization - Quantum field theory - Julian Schwinger - Shin'ichiro Tomonaga - Richard Feynman - Freeman Dyson - Wilson - Kadanoff

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The idea of renormalization is that, while some continuous physical systems are by necessity described by models with a characteristic smallest length scale (or largest energy scale), the large-scale physical predictions of the theory should not depend on that characteristic length scale. In some cases, the characteristic smallest length scale is manifestly unphysical. Physical consequences of this scale-independence are explored by considering the effect of changing the characteristic scale on various physical calculations. Depending on the formulation, the collection of all scale transformations, called by physicists "the renormalization group", has the mathematical structure of a group, semigroup or quantum group/Hopf algebra. The renormalization group in quantum field theory was studied by Gell-Mann and Low.

Related Topics:
Length scale - Energy scale - Renormalization group - Group - Semigroup - Quantum group - Hopf algebra - Gell-Mann - Low

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