Geodesic Renormalisation Group Flow

Abstract

It is shown that the renormalisation group flow in coupling constant space can be interpreted in terms of a dynamical equation for the couplings analogous to viscous fluid flow under the action of a potential. For free scalar field theory the flow is geodesic in two dimensions, while for $D \neq 2$ it is only geodesic in certain limits, e.g. for vanishing external source. For the 1-D Ising model the renormalisation flow is geodesic when the external magnetic field vanishes.