INPHYNI seminar: Bertrand Delamotte

  • Science and society
Published on May 7, 2026 – Updated on May 7, 2026
Dates

on the May 12, 2026

Café : 15h
Séminaire: 15h15
Location
Salle des séminaires

Phase transitions, surface growth, generalization of the central limit theorem and so on: Wilson’s renormalization group is still very much alive

Seminars of the Institut de Physique de Nice,

Abstract:

Wilson introduced in the 1970s a method to resum thermal fluctuations, allowing one to understand and compute the behavior of statistical systems near second-order phase transitions (such as the Ising model at criticality), for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. However, his approach—at least in the form he envisioned—remained largely underused for nearly two decades, being mostly confined to perturbation theory, a powerful but sometimes limited framework.

A major revival occurred in the mid-1990s, leading to a surge of applications ranging from quantum gravity to turbulence, as well as the dynamics of chemical reactions and particle physics. This seminar will introduce the core ideas of Wilson’s approach and illustrate them through several (conceptually accessible) applications: the generalization of the central limit theorem to strongly correlated variables, phase transitions, and, if time permits, surface growth.