Inhomogeneous and Homogeneous Renormalization Group Equations for the Effective Potential

Abstract

The inhomogeneous renormalization group equation for the effective potential is rederived. It is shown that when the effective potential is normalized by the normalization condition on the generating functional, its renormalization group equation is homogeneous. This is demonstrated in the case of massive $\phi^4$-theory. We also show that for the case of spontaneous symmetry breaking, the normalized effective potential is completely different from the symmetric case, though the two cases satisfy the same RGE with the same RG-functions. It is concluded that the vacuum energy density arises only in the case of SSB.