Testing Scalar Field Self-Dualities in d=2 using a Variational Method
High Energy Physics - Theory
2026-05-12 v2 High Energy Physics - Lattice
Nuclear Theory
Abstract
Recently, self-dualities based on saddle-point expansions have been proposed as a means to obtain qualitative non-perturbative information in scalar field theories. In this work, we test this proposition quantitatively by studying the phase transition for critical scalar field theory in 1+1 dimensions using a variational method. We find that saddle-point methods obtain quantitative agreement for the free energy, but differ on the order of 25 percent for the peak location of the correlation length.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.15988,
title = {Testing Scalar Field Self-Dualities in d=2 using a Variational Method},
author = {Paul Romatschke and Ulrike Romatschke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.15988},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
17 pages, 3 figures