Tropical QFT and the sine-Gordon model

Abstract

A tropical quantum field theory is an exactly solvable deformation limit of an ordinary QFT, governed by a non-linear partial differential equation. We use the integrable two-dimensional sine-Gordon theory as a testbench to compare the exact features of an undeformed model with its tropical counterpart. We classify scale-invariant tropical QFTs in $D=2$ and leverage functional renormalization group methods to demonstrate that all scale-invariant theories with periodic effective actions are infrared fixed points of flows originating from sine-Gordon Lagrangians. For the tropical sine-Gordon model, we compute the $\beta$-functions exactly, solve the renormalized theory both via a convergent expansion and numerically for all admissible couplings, and illustrate the complete renormalization group flow from the Gaussian to the IR fixed point. Finally, we study the large-order behaviour of the loop expansion and relate it to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, whose solutions we interpret as tropical instantons.

36 pages, comments welcome!