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On the Renormalization Group Explanation of Universality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Alexander Franklin
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Abstract

It is commonly claimed that the universality of critical phenomena is explained through particular applications of the renormalization group (RG). This article has three aims: to clarify the structure of the explanation of universality, to discuss the physics of such RG explanations, and to examine the extent to which universality is thus explained. The derivation of critical exponents proceeds via a real-space or a field-theoretic approach to the RG. Building on work by Mainwood, this article argues that these approaches ought to be distinguished: while the field-theoretic approach explains universality, the real-space approach fails to provide an adequate explanation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 225 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†.

I would like to thank Bob Batterman, Jeremy Butterfield, James Fraser, Roman Frigg, Eleanor Knox, Mauricio Suárez, and anonymous referees, as well as audiences at the Oxford University Graduate Seminar, BSPS Annual Conference 2015, and the Fourth Irvine-Pittsburgh-Princeton Conference for thought-provoking comments and feedback. This work was supported by an LAHP Research Council Studentship.

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