Nonperturbative renormalization group for Ising-nematic criticality: A closed-form nonlocal ansatz
Phys. Rev. B 114, 245126 – Published 19 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zxpv-cqf9
Abstract
The two-dimensional metallic quantum critical problem is a long-standing puzzle that is widely believed to hold the key to resolving ubiquitous non-Fermi-liquid behavior in strongly correlated electronic systems. In this study, we present a nonperturbative renormalization group analysis of the metallic Ising-nematic quantum critical point in two dimensions, formulated directly around an intrinsically nonlocal infrared boson propagator. Rather than treating the anomalous dynamical critical exponent as a fixed phenomenological parameter, we regard it as an intrinsic component of the fixed-point data to be determined from the internal consistency of the low-energy patch field theory under highly anisotropic scaling dimensions (, , ). While the leading two-loop diagrammatics vanish identically due to kinematic pole configurations, our three-loop evaluation reveals a profound structural asymmetry between the sectors: The fermion self-energy and Yukawa vertex receive nonvanishing logarithmic corrections, whereas the corresponding bosonic counterterm remains strictly zero. Consequently, we find that no self-consistent, intersecting fixed-point solution for the exponent exists within the three-loop truncation, failing to reproduce the physical value of observed in quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We conjecture that the cross-linked topology of the four-loop boson self-energy diagrams is exactly marginal and yields the minimal, mandatory bosonic counterterm required to restore multisector self-consistency. Our framework establishes a rigid multiloop matching scheme necessary to uniquely pin down the critical exponent and uncovers a stable phase space for field anomalous dimensions.