Spontaneous breaking of the $\text{SO}(2N)$ symmetry in the Gross-Neveu model

Abstract

The canonical Gross-Neveu model for $N$ two-component Dirac fermions in $2+1$ dimensions suffers a continuous phase transition at a critical interaction $g_{c1} \sim 1/N$ at large $N$, at which its continuous symmetry $\text{SO}(2N)$ is preserved and a discrete (Ising) symmetry becomes spontaneously broken. A recent mean-field calculation, however, points to an additional transition at a different critical $g_{c2}\sim -N g_{c1}$, at which $\text{SO}(2N) \rightarrow \text{SO}(N) \times \text{SO}(N)$. To study the latter phase transition we rewrite the Gross-Neveu interaction $g (\bar{\psi} \psi)^2$ in terms of three different quartic terms for the single ($L=1$) $4N$-component real (Majorana) fermion, and then extend the theory to $L>1$. This allows us to track the evolution of the fixed points of the renormalization group transformation starting from $L\gg 1$, where one can discern three distinct critical points which correspond to continuous phase transitions into (1) $\text{SO}(2N)$-singlet mass-order-parameter, (2) $\text{SO}(2N)$-symmetric-tensor mass-order-parameters, and (3) $\text{SO}(2N)$-adjoint nematic-order-parameters, down to $L=1$ value that is relevant to the standard Gross-Neveu model. Below the critical value of $L_c (N)\approx 0.35 N$ for $N\gg1$ only the Gross-Neveu critical point (1) still implies a diverging susceptibility for its corresponding ($\text{SO}(2N)$-singlet) order parameter, whereas the two new critical points that existed at large $L$ ultimately become equivalent to the Gaussian fixed point at $L=1$. We interpret this metamorphosis of the $\text{SO}(2N)$-symmetric-tensor fixed point from critical to spurious as an indication that the transition at $g_{c2}$ in the original Gross-Neveu model is turned first-order by fluctuations.