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# References

USE OF CRYSTALS FOR HIGH ENERGY PHOTON BEAM LINEAR POLARIZATION CONVERSION INTO CIRCULAR
N.Z. Akopova, A.B. Apyanb, S.M. Darbinyanc

Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan, 375036, Armenia
a E-mail:akopov@inix.yerphi.am

b E-mail:aapyan@jerewan1.yerphi.am

c E-mail:simon@inix.yerphi.am

> The possibility to convert the photon beam linear polarization into circular one at photon energies of hundreds GeV with the use of crystals is considered. The energy and orientation dependencies of refractive indexes are investigated in case of diamond, silicon and germanium crystal targets. To maximize the values for figure of merit, the corresponding crystal optimal orientation angles and thickness are found. The degree of circular polarization and intensity of photon beam are estimated and possibility of experimental realization is discussed.

The method to convert the linear polarization into circular one at high energies using the single crystals (similar to the quarter-wave plate in optics) was proposed by N. Cabibbo  since sixties and its experimental verification is not yet found. In the last decade the interest to this problem has increased  and there have been proposals to verify it experimentally . This interest is connected with planned experiments with circular polarized photon beams at energies of tens and hundreds GeV on investigation of fundamental problems of theory. It was considered the possibility of using the circularly polarized photon beams in order to measure G, the polarized gluon distribution in nucleons, which is necessary for understanding the spin crisis problem. The investigation of this problem is of great importance since the results of EMC Collaboration experiment show that only $`30\%`$ of nucleon spin is carried out by quarks . The problem of spin crisis can be investigated by the processes of production of jets and heavy quarks via photon-gluon fusion , production of high transverse momentum mesons , production of $`J/\psi `$  and $`\rho ^0`$-mesons by circularly polarized photons. In particular for processes of polarized photon fusion with gluons of polarized nucleon target the asymmetry in produced charm-anticharm quark pairs rates for opposite polarization of the target will appreciate the gluon contribution to the proton spin. According to theoretical calculations and existing proposals  a large asymmetry, of $`40\%`$, is anticipated. The estimated value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }G/G`$ obtained recently in the HERMES experiment (HERA, DESY) at the photon energy of 27.5 GeV is in order 0.41 which corresponds to asymmetry in order of 0.28 .

Circular polarized photon beams can be produced by the longitudinal polarized electron beams, however the energy of electrons at modern accelerators is not sufficiently high to realize of above mentioned experiments. Therefore it is nessesary to continue the works on production of circular polarized photon beams at high energy proton accelerators (CERN, Fermilab). The first stage of the experiment NA59 devoted to production of linear polarized photon beam was performed at CERN on the 180 GeV energy SPS electron beam, using the 1.5 cm silicon radiator. The $`40\%`$ of the average linear polarization for the photons at energy range of 90-140 GeV was obtained. The second stage of the experiment on conversion of the photon beam linear polarization is planned to realize in this year. In this connection is actual to carry out calculations on investigation of the problem in different crystals to choose more convenient one for polarization conversion experiment and to estimate the crystal plate optimal thickness.

In present work the problem of photon polarization conversion at energies of 100-300 GeV for usually used C, Si and Ge crystals is investigated. The energy and orientation dependencies of real parts of refractive indexes are calculated as well as the optimal thickness’ of crystal plates, which provide the production of photon beams with maximal value of figure of merit (FOM) in sense of the degree of circular polarization and beam intensity, are estimated.

The photon beam orientation with respect to the crystal axes is defined in the following way. Let the chosen three orthogonal axes of cubic crystal are (1,2,3). The beam orientation is defined by angle $`\theta `$ between the axis 3 and the direction of incident photon beam $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ and by the angle $`\alpha `$ between the projection of $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ on the plane (1,2) and the axis 1. The photon beam polarization direction is defined with respect to the incidence plane containing photon direction $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ and axis 3 and the indexes $``$ and $``$ correspond to cases of $`\phi _0`$ =0 and $`\phi _0=\pi /2`$ (Fig.1). The coordinate system (x, y, z) connected with beam direction is chosen as shown in Fig.1. The projections $`(g_x,g_y,g_z)`$ of reciprocal lattice vector $`\stackrel{}{g}=\stackrel{}{g}_1\stackrel{}{n}_1+\stackrel{}{g}_2\stackrel{}{n}_2+\stackrel{}{g}_3\stackrel{}{n}_3`$ are equal:

$`g_{}=g_z=\theta (G_1\mathrm{cos}\alpha +G_2\mathrm{sin}\alpha ),`$
$`g_x=G_1\mathrm{cos}\alpha +G_2\mathrm{sin}\alpha ,`$ (1)
$`g_y=G_1\mathrm{sin}\alpha +G_2\mathrm{cos}\alpha ,`$
where $`\stackrel{}{g_i}`$ are the vectors along the crystal basis axes $`(|\stackrel{}{g_i}|=2\pi /\alpha )`$ and $`G_1,G_2,G_3`$ are projections of $`\stackrel{}{g}`$ on the axes 1, 2, 3.

When high energy photon beam propagates through medium the photons are absorbed mainly due to the pair production mechanism on the medium atoms and photon beam attenuates with penetrating depth. Hence the refractive index is a complex quantity and his imaginary part is connected with pair production cross section by equation: Im$`n=W/2\omega `$ where $`W=N\sigma `$ is the absorption coefficient, n is dencity of atoms and $`\sigma `$ is pair production cross section. In crystals the cross section (and accordingly refractive index) depends upon photon beam polarization direction with respect to the crystal axes. The real parts of refractive indexes defined via imaginary parts by dispersion relations . This interesting assumption for photon birefringence at high energies is not so obviousely and its experimental verification presents itself of great importance.

Let us consider the linear polarized photon beam incidents upon crystal as shown in Fig.1. The polarization of photon beam is described by Stocks parameters $`\xi _1=P_0\mathrm{sin}2\phi _0,\xi _3=P_0\mathrm{cos}2\phi _0`$, where $`P_0`$ and $`\phi _0`$ are the degree and direction of polarization. The beam intensity and Stocks parameters beyond the crystal plate of thickness $`l`$ are defined by formulae :

$`I(l)=I(0)[\mathrm{cosh}(al)+P_0\mathrm{cos}(2\phi _0)\mathrm{sinh}(al)]e^{\overline{W}l},`$
$`\xi _1(l)={\displaystyle \frac{P_0\mathrm{sin}(2\phi _0)\mathrm{cos}(bl)}{\mathrm{cosh}(al)+P_0\mathrm{cos}(2\phi _0)\mathrm{sinh}(al)}},`$
$`\xi _2(l)={\displaystyle \frac{P_0\mathrm{sin}(2\phi _0)\mathrm{sin}(bl)}{\mathrm{cosh}(al)+P_0\mathrm{cos}(2\phi _0)\mathrm{sinh}(al)}},`$ (2)
$`\xi _3(l)={\displaystyle \frac{P_0\mathrm{cos}(2\phi _0)\mathrm{cosh}(al)+\mathrm{sinh}(al)}{\mathrm{cosh}(al)+P_0\mathrm{cos}(2\phi _0)\mathrm{sinh}(al)}},`$
where $`W=(W_{}+W_{})/2,a=(W_{}W_{})/2,b=\omega Re(n_{}n_{})`$.

As it’s follows from (1)

$$\xi _1^2(l)+\xi _2^2(l)+\xi _3^2(l)=1+\frac{P_0^21}{\mathrm{cosh}(al)+P_0\mathrm{cos}(2\phi _0)\mathrm{sinh}(al)}$$
(3)
and in case of completely linearly polarized incident photon beam there is conservation of polarization:

$$\xi _1^2(l)+\xi _2^2(l)+\xi _3^2(l)=\xi _1^2(0)+\xi _3^2(0)$$
(4)
and this condition can be used for determination of circular polarization afther measuring the linear polarization of survived photon beam.

The formulae (2) permits to calculate the parameters of surviving photon beam in dependence of orientation angle $`\theta `$ and incident beam polarization direction $`\phi _0`$. From expressions for $`\xi _2(l)`$ and $`I(l)`$ it is clear that crystal must be oriented at angles corresponding to maximum values of real parts differences in order to decrease the beam attenuation or the thickness of crystal plate. The results of calculations for C, Si and Ge crystals at energies 100, 200 and 300 GeV are shown in Fig. 1-3. The photon beam is oriented parallel to the plane $`(1\overline{1}0)`$ and makes angle $`\theta `$ with axis . The absorption coefficients and, respectively, differences of real parts are calculated by coherent theory , the validity of which is not questionable since the results obtained by this theory are in good agreement with experimental data at considered angles .

The criterion of crystal efficiency is the maximal value of the figure of merit (FOM) FOM=$`\xi _2^2(l)I(l)`$ in dependence of orientation angle $`\theta `$ and crystal thickness $`l`$. For determination of $`\theta ^{opt}`$ and $`l^{opt}`$ the calculations are carried out at $`\phi _0=45^0`$. Such choice of incident beam polarization direction is due to the fact, that at considered energies the condition $`al1`$ is fulfilled and $`\xi _2(l)`$ receives its maximum value at that angle. The results given in Table 1 show, that optimal angles $`\theta ^{opt}`$ decrease with increasing of photon energy being significantly higher than characteristic angle of quasiclassical theory at considered energies . The value of FOM is greatest for diamond but silicon crystal is more suitable for conversion experiment because of the silicon can be grown of required thickness and does not need cooling as germanium crystal.

The authors would like to thank Prof. M.L. Ter-Mikaelian for useful discussions. This work was supported by the ISTC Grant A-099.

Figure Captions

Fig.1. Crystal orientation with respect to the polarized photon beam.

Fig.2. Curves for diamond, silicon and cooled germanium crystals for photon beam energy 100 GeV. Solid curves for Si, dashed curves for Ge and dotted curves for C.
a - the differences of refractive indexes real parts as a function of $`\theta `$.
b and c - photon beam circular polarization degree and intensity as a functions of crystal plate thickness respectively.

Fig.3. The curves as in Fig. 2. for photon beam energy 200 GeV.

Fig.4. The curves as in Fig. 2. for photon beam energy 300 GeV.


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# Underground Muon Physics with the MACRO experiment

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Muons detected deep underground are a useful tool for different physics and astrophysics items. These muons are the decay product of mesons originating in the very first hadronic interactions in the atmosphere or in secondary interactions during the shower development. Therefore, their study can provide many informations about primary cosmic rays (CR) composition and/or high energy hadronic interactions. Muons arriving in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory have crossed at least $`h`$ 3100 $`hg/cm^2`$ of standard rock, corresponding to a muon energy cut $`E_\mu 1.3`$ TeV at the surface. This means that the primary CR energies range from some TeV/nucleon up to the maximum energies well beyond the “knee”.

The MACRO experiment has collected a large amount of muon data in the last decade, at a rate of $`6.6\times 10^6`$ muon events/live year, and the $``$ 6% of these are multiple muon events. Many underground observables have been studied. The multiplicity distribution, i.e. the rate of muon events as a function of their multiplicity, is a quantity strongly dependent on the primary composition model. A detailed analysis on primary composition has been performed by the MACRO collaboration : one of the result is that data prefers a composition model with an average mass slightly increasing with energy above the knee111for a more detailed discussion on composition studies see the contribution of E. Scapparone in these proceedings.

Nevertheless, in the context of composition studies the knowledge of the hadronic interaction model is crucial. The main contribution to the systematic uncertainties in these analyses are due to the interaction models adopted and it is important to find out new observables to test the reliability of these models implemented in the Monte Carlo simulations. Moreover, is intrinsically important to test interaction models in kinematical regions not yet explored at accelerators or colliders. For instance, about 5% of MACRO muon data comes from $`pp`$ interactions with $`\sqrt{s}>`$ 2 TeV, while about 30% of the muons observed are the decay products of mesons produced with a (pseudo)rapidity $`\eta _{cm}>`$ 5. The situation is more evident if we consider that part of primary interactions in the atmosphere are nucleus-nucleus interactions, and very few data for energy $`E_{lab}\stackrel{>}{_{}}`$ 150 A GeV are available. In the following, we will focus on the decoherence analysis and on cluster analysis, two different tools able to extract informations on the interaction model adopted in the simulation codes.

## 2 THE MACRO DETECTOR

The MACRO detector  is a large area apparatus located in hall B of the Gran Sasso Laboratory at an average depth of 3800 hg/cm2 of standard rock ($`E_\mu `$1.3 TeV). It has a modular structure, organized in six almost identical “supermodules” covering an horizontal surface area of $`1000`$ m2. The apparatus is equipped with three different and independent sub-detectors: streamer tube chambers for particle tracking, scintillator counters for timing and energy loss reconstruction and nuclear track-etch detectors optimized for the search of magnetic monopoles. The wire view of the streamer tube system is complemented with a second view, disposed at $`26.5^{}`$ with respect to the wire view, realized with aluminium pick-up strips. The spatial resolutions are $`\sigma _W`$=1.1 cm and $`\sigma _S`$=1.6 cm for the wire and strip view respectively. This arrangement allows the 3-D track reconstruction with an intrinsic pointing resolution of $`0.2^{}`$.

## 3 SIMULATION TOOLS

The full simulation chain used to interpret MACRO data is composed of an event generator modelling high energy hadronic interactions, included in a shower propagation code which follows particles above threshold up to a given atmospheric depth. A muon transport code propagate muons inside the mountain overburden the apparatus and a detector simulator produces an output in the same format of real data.

$``$ Event generator

Most of the analyses of MACRO data have been carried on using the original HEMAS interaction model , based on the parametrizations of minimum bias events collected at the $`Sp\overline{p}S`$ collider at CERN . According to these results, the charged multiplicity is sampled from a negative binomial distribution and the transverse momentum contains a power law component. The model includes nuclear target effects and extrapolations to higher energies are performed in the context of log$`(s)`$ physics.

The interaction model in Ref.  (called “NIM85”) has been tested in a parametrized form with MACRO muon data . This model neglects some important experimental results: for instance, the charged multiplicity is sampled from a Poisson distribution and the transverse momentum distribution contains only a pure exponential functional form.

Presently new interaction models are under study: DPMJET , QGSJET , SIBYLL  and HDPM, the original interaction model of the shower simulation code CORSIKA . These are phenomenological models where the interactions are treated at parton level, with the exception of the HDPM generator, which is based on the DPM model but it is built according to parametrized results. They have the common feature to refer to the Regge-Gribov theories for the modelling of the soft part of the interactions, where perturbative QCD cannot be applied. Nevertheless, the transverse component of the interactions is not constrained by the theory and is introduced “by hand”, according to some experimental results such as the seagull effect  or the Cronin effect  in nuclear interactions. In this context, it is useful the comparison of the model one to each other to estimate the systematic uncertainty associated to the unknown transverse structure of the interactions.

$``$ Cascade code

Two different shower propagation codes have been used in the analyses: HEMAS222the name HEMAS refers both to the hadronic interaction model and to the cascade code  and CORSIKA . HEMAS is conceived as a fast tool to compute the hadronic, electromagnetic and muon component of air showers. It has been extensively used in the MACRO collaboration and has revised many improvements since its first release. It introduces some approximations in the shower development, so that the model can be used to follow only particles with a minimum energy in atmosphere $`E>500`$ GeV. The electromagnetic size is computed by means a semi-analytical method. It can be used interfaced with the DPMJET and HEMAS interaction models.

Recently, the CORSIKA  Monte Carlo code, generally used in surface EAS-arrays, has been interfaced with the muon transport code to propagate muons up to the Gran Sasso depth. This code has been used only in the analysis of high multiplicity events.

$``$ Muon transport code

The muon propagation in the rock has been realized using the PROPMU package , which represents an improvement with respect to the propagation model included in the original HEMAS version. It takes into account muon energy loss due to multiple Coulomb scattering and to discrete processes, such as bremsstrahlung, pair production processes and photonuclear interactions.

$``$ Detector simulator

The response of the apparatus is simulated by means a GEANT  based code, called GMACRO. It reproduces all relevant physical processes in the detector and produces an output in the same format of real data, so as to process data using the same offline chain of real data.

## 4 ANALYSIS RESULTS

### 4.1 Decoherence Function

The decoherence function, defined as the distribution of the muon pair separation in multiple muon events, is mainly connected with the muon lateral distribution with respect to the shower axis and is very sensitive to the transverse structure of the hadronic interaction models. The decoherence distribution is instead weakly dependent on the primary composition model, as far as the shape of the distribution is concerned. Therefore, the study of this function allows to some extent the disentangle between the two effects. MACRO has studied the decoherence function up to the maximum distance allowed by the apparatus  ($``$ 70 m). The unfolded decoherence function (the distribution corrected for the detector effects) is shown in Fig.1, where it is compared with the predictions of the HEMAS Monte Carlo.

A further check on the reliability of the simulation code has been performed in different rock/zenith windows, constraining some component of the shower development with respect to others . Again, the comparison shows a good agreement between data and Monte Carlo.

Finally, the study of the decoherence function in the very low distance region has shown that the QED process $`\mu ^\pm +N\mu ^\pm +N+\mu ^++\mu ^{}`$ at small distances must be taken into account if we want to reproduce the experimental data . This is shown in Fig.2, where the low distance region of the decoherence function is shown before and after the correction. The contribution of this process is negligible compared to the $`e^+e^{}`$ pair production process in the GeV range, but it becomes progressively more important in the TeV region .

### 4.2 Cluster Analysis

The search for substructures inside muon bundles is able to provide additional information with respect to traditional methods . In some events muon bundles appear to be splitted into “clusters” and we ask if this feature is the result of simple statistical fluctuations in the muon lateral distribution or if there is some dynamical correlation connected with the development of the shower in the atmosphere. From an experimental point of view, we select muon bundles with at least 8 muons underground ($`N_\mu `$ 8) corresponding to CR primary energies $`E_{primary}\stackrel{>}{_{}}`$ 1000 TeV. The search for muon clusters is performed by means of an iterative cluster finding algorithm, which groups the muons depending on the choice of a free parameter called $`\chi _{cut}`$ (for the definition of this parameter see Ref. ).

In Ref.  has been pointed out that this method is sensitive both on the primary composition model and on the hadronic composition model. The comparison was made between two extreme composition model (the “heavy” and “light” composition models ) and between two very different hadronic interaction model (HEMAS and NIM85). Most of the effect can be explained as the result of fluctuations of the muon density inside the bundles. Considering that the density (namely the average number of muons per unity of area) depends both on primary mass number and on the modelling of meson transverse momentum, we can expect that the cluster effect is sensitive to the composition model and to the hadronic interaction model at the same time. On the other hand, if we consider the interaction models quoted in previous sections, the sensitivity of the cluster effect on the interaction model becomes weaker. This is shown in Fig.3, where is reported the cluster rates as a function of the parameter $`\chi _{cut}`$ for different interaction models and for a fixed primary composition model (the model derived from the fit of the MACRO multiplicity distribution ). In this case we are forced to enhance the sensitivity applying some selection criteria which correlate the underground substructures with the hadronic interaction features in the atmosphere.

Apart from statistical fluctuations, a Monte Carlo study has revealed other two mechanisms responsible for the cluster effect:

$``$ muons belonging to the same cluster have a larger probability to have a common parent meson in the steps of shower tree generation;

$``$ muons belonging to the same cluster are the decay products of mesons highly correlated in the phase space of the very first hadronic interactions in the atmosphere. We considered only events reconstructed as two-cluster events by the algorithm with a fixed $`\chi _{cut}`$ and we studied the kinematical variables pseudorapidity $`\eta `$ and azimuthal angle $`\varphi `$ of the parent mesons in the first interaction of the shower. The typical topology of these selected events is a muon rich cluster close to the shower axis, generally the remnant of the shower development after many steps, and a far cluster with few muons directly generated in the very first hadronic interactions. Fig.4 shows the distributions of the relative distance in the $`\eta \varphi `$ space of pairs of muon parent mesons originated in the first interactions: the topological selection of muons belonging to the same or to different clusters reflects in a strong selection of different phase space regions of hadronic interactions.

A quantitative computation of the relative contributions of these effects is at presently under study.

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

The MACRO experiment has collected a large amount of muon data in the last decade. The analyses performed with these data allowed to draw conclusions about several items of muon physics. The dimension and granularity of the detector allowed the detection of multiplicity up to $`40`$, under more than 3000 hg/cm2 of rock overburden. The study of the multiplicity distribution has been used to extract informations on the primary cosmic ray composition.

The modelling of the transverse component of the interaction models at TeV energies, connected with the lateral distribution of cosmic ray shower, is one of the main source of uncertainties in the simulation codes. The analysis of the decoherence function has shown the reliability of the HEMAS Monte Carlo, used in most of the MACRO analyses.

The study of second order effects, like the search for jet substructures inside muon bundles, is a useful tool to add new informations with respect to conventional analyses. The physical interpretation of the results has shown the dynamical origin of the effect, connected with the development of the shower in the atmosphere.


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# Randomly dilute spin models: a six-loop field-theoretic study.

## I Introduction.

The critical behavior of systems with quenched disorder is of considerable theoretical and experimental interest. A typical example is obtained by mixing an (anti)-ferromagnetic material with a non-magnetic one, obtaining the so-called dilute magnets. These materials are usually described in terms of a lattice short-range Hamiltonian of the form

$$_x=J\underset{<ij>}{}\rho _i\rho _j\stackrel{}{s}_i\stackrel{}{s}_j,$$
(1)
where $`\stackrel{}{s}_i`$ is an $`M`$-component spin and the sum is extended over all nearest-neighbor sites. The quantities $`\rho _i`$ are uncorrelated random variables, which are equal to one with probability $`x`$ (the spin concentration) and zero with probability $`1x`$ (the impurity concentration). The pure system corresponds to $`x=1`$. One considers quenched disorder, since the relaxation time associated to the diffusion of the impurities is much larger than all other typical time scales, so that, for all practical purposes, one can consider the position of the impurities fixed. For sufficiently low spin dilution $`1x`$, i.e. as long as one is above the percolation threshold of the magnetic atoms. the system described by the Hamiltonian $`_x`$ undergoes a second-order phase transition at $`T_c(x)<T_c(x=1)`$ (see e.g. Ref.  for a review).

The relevant question in the study of this class of systems is the effect of the disorder on the critical behavior. The Harris criterion  states that the addition of impurities to a system which undergoes a second-order phase transition does not change the critical behavior if the specific-heat critical exponent $`\alpha _{\mathrm{pure}}`$ of the pure system is negative. If $`\alpha _{\mathrm{pure}}`$ is positive, the transition is altered. Indeed, in disordered systems the exponent $`\nu `$ satisfies the inequality $`\nu 2/d`$  — this fact has been questioned however in Refs.  — and therefore, by hyperscaling, $`\alpha _{\mathrm{random}}`$ is negative. Thus, if $`\alpha _{\mathrm{pure}}`$ is positive, $`\alpha _{\mathrm{random}}`$ differs from $`\alpha _{\mathrm{pure}}`$, so that the pure system and the dilute one have a different critical behavior. In pure $`M`$-vector models with $`M>1`$, the specific-heat exponent $`\alpha _{\mathrm{pure}}`$ is negative; therefore, according to the Harris criterion, no change in the critical asymptotic behavior is expected in the presence of weak quenched disorder. This means that in these systems disorder leads only to irrelevant scaling corrections. Three-dimensional Ising systems are more interesting, since $`\alpha _{\mathrm{pure}}`$ is positive. In this case, the presence of quenched impurities leads to a new universality class.

Theoretical investigations, using approaches based on the renormalization group , and numerical Monte Carlo simulations , support the existence of a new random Ising fixed point describing the critical behavior along the $`T_c(x)`$ line: the critical exponents are dilution independent (for sufficiently low dilution) and different from those of the pure Ising model.

Experiments confirm this picture. Cristalline mixtures of an Ising-like uniaxial antiferromagnet with short-range interactions (e.g. FeF2, MnF2) with a nonmagnetic material (e.g. ZnF2 ) provide a typical realization of the random Ising model (RIM) (see e.g. Refs. ). Some experimental results are reported in Table I. This is not a complete list, but it gives an overview of the experimental state of the art. Other experimental results can be found in Refs. . The experimental estimates are definitely different from the values of the critical exponents for pure Ising systems, which are (see Ref.  and references therein) $`\gamma =1.2371(4)`$, $`\nu =0.63002(23)`$, $`\alpha =0.1099(7)`$, and $`\beta =0.32648(18)`$. Moreover, they appear to be independent of the concentration. We mention that in the presence of an external magnetic field along the uniaxial direction, dilute Ising systems present a different critical behavior, equivalent to that of the random-field Ising model . This is also the object of intensive theoretical and experimental investigations (see e.g. Refs. ).

Several experiments also tested the effect of disorder on the $`\lambda `$-transition of 4He that belongs to the $`XY`$ universality class, corresponding to $`M=2`$ . They studied the critical behaviour of 4He completely filling the pores of porous gold or Vycor glass. The results indicate that the transition is in the same universality class of the $`\lambda `$-transition of the pure system in agreement with the Harris criterion .

The starting point of the field-theoretic approach to the study of ferromagnets in the presence of quenched disorder is the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson Hamiltonian

$$=d^dx\left\{\frac{1}{2}(_\mu \varphi (x))^2+\frac{1}{2}r\varphi (x)^2+\frac{1}{2}\psi (x)\varphi (x)^2+\frac{1}{4!}g_0\left[\varphi (x)^2\right]^2\right\},$$
(2)
where $`rTT_c`$, and $`\psi (x)`$ is a spatially uncorrelated random field with Gaussian distribution

$$P(\psi )=\frac{1}{\sqrt{4\pi }w}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\psi ^2}{4w}\right].$$
(3)
We consider quenched disorder. Therefore, in order to obtain the free energy of the system, we must compute the partition function $`Z(\psi ,g_0)`$ for a given distribution $`\psi (x)`$, and then average the corresponding free energy over all distributions with probability $`P(\psi )`$. By using the standard replica trick, it is possible to replace the quenched average with an annealed one. First, the system is replaced by $`N`$ non-interacting copies with annealed disorder. Then, integrating over the disorder, one obtains the Hamiltonian

$$_{MN}=d^dx\left\{\underset{i,a}{}\frac{1}{2}\left[(_\mu \varphi _{a,i})^2+r\varphi _{a,i}^2\right]+\underset{ij,ab}{}\frac{1}{4!}\left(u_0+v_0\delta _{ij}\right)\varphi _{a,i}^2\varphi _{b,j}^2\right\}$$
(4)
where $`a,b=1,\mathrm{}M`$ and $`i,j=1,\mathrm{}N`$. The original system, i.e. the dilute $`M`$-vector model, is recovered in the limit $`N0`$. Note that the coupling $`u_0`$ is negative (being proportional to minus the variance of the quenched disorder), while the coupling $`v_0`$ is positive.

In this formulation, the critical properties of the dilute $`M`$-vector model can be investigated by studying the renormalization-group flow of the Hamiltonian (4) in the limit $`N0`$, i.e. of $`_{M0}`$. One can then apply conventional computational schemes, such as the $`ϵ`$-expansion, the fixed-dimension $`d=3`$ expansion, the scaling-field method, etc… In the renormalization-group approach, if the fixed point corresponding to the pure model is unstable and the renormalization-group flow moves towards a new random fixed point, then the random system has a different critical behavior.

It is important to note that in the renormalization-group approach one assumes that the replica symmetry is not broken. In recent years, however, this picture has been questioned  on the ground that the renormalization-group approach does note take into account other local minimum configurations of the random Hamiltonian (2), which may cause the spontaneous breaking of the replica symmetry. In this paper we assume the validity of the standard renormalization-group approach, and simply consider the Hamiltonian (4) for $`N=0`$.

For generic values of $`M`$ and $`N`$, the Hamiltonian $`_{MN}`$ describes $`M`$ coupled $`N`$-vector models and it is usually called $`MN`$ model . $`_{MN}`$ has four fixed points: the trivial Gaussian one, the O($`M`$)-symmetric fixed point describing $`N`$ decoupled $`M`$-vector models, the O($`MN`$)-symmetric and the mixed fixed point. The Gaussian one is never stable. The stability of the other fixed points depends on the values of $`M`$ and $`N`$ (see e.g. Ref.  for a discussion). The stability properties of the decoupled O($`M`$) fixed point can be inferred by observing that the crossover exponent associated with the O($`MN`$)-symmetric interaction (with coupling $`u_0`$) is related to the specific-heat critical exponent of the O($`M`$) fixed point . Indeed, at the O($`M`$)-symmetric fixed point one may interpret $`_{MN}`$ as the Hamiltonian of $`N`$ $`M`$-vector systems coupled by the O($`MN`$)-symmetric term. But this interaction is the sum of the products of the energy operators of the different $`M`$-vector models. Therefore, at the O($`M`$) fixed point, the crossover exponent $`\varphi `$ associated to the O($`MN`$)-symmetric quartic term should be given by the specific-heat critical exponent $`\alpha _M`$ of the $`M`$-vector model, independently of $`N`$. This argument implies that for $`M=1`$ (Ising-like systems) the pure Ising fixed point is unstable since $`\varphi =\alpha _I>0`$, while for $`M>1`$ the O($`M`$) fixed point is stable given that $`\alpha _M<0`$. This is a general result that should hold independently of $`N`$.

For the quenched disordered systems described by the Hamiltonian $`_{M0}`$, the physically relevant region for the renormalization-group flow corresponds to negative values of the coupling $`u`$ . Therefore, for $`M>1`$ the renormalization group flow is driven towards the pure O($`M`$) fixed point, and the quenched disorder yields correction to scaling proportional to the spin dilution and to $`|t|^{\mathrm{\Delta }_r}`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r=\alpha _M`$. Note that for the physically interesting two- and three-vector models the absolute value of $`\alpha _M`$ is very small: $`\alpha _20.013`$ (see e.g. the recent results of Refs. ) and $`\alpha _30.12`$ (see e.g. ). Thus disorder gives rise to very slowly-decaying scaling corrections. For Ising-like systems, the pure Ising fixed point is instead unstable, and the flow for negative values of the quartic coupling $`u`$ leads to the stable mixed or random fixed point which is located in the region of negative values of $`u`$. The above picture emerges clearly in the framework of the $`ϵ`$-expansion, although for the Ising-like systems the RIM fixed point is of order $`\sqrt{ϵ}`$  rather than $`ϵ`$.

The other fixed points of the Hamiltonian $`_{M0}`$ are located in the unphysical region $`u>0`$. Thus, they are not of interest for the critical behavior of randomly dilute spin models. For the sake of completeness, we mention that for $`M>1`$ the mixed fixed point is in the region of positive $`u`$ and is unstable . The last fixed point is on the positive $`v=0`$ axis, is stable and corresponds to the $`(MN)`$-vector theory for $`N0`$. It is therefore in the same universality class of the self-avoiding walk model (SAW). Figure 1 sketches the flow diagram for Ising ($`M=1`$) and multicomponent ($`M>1`$) systems.

The Hamiltonian $`_{MN}`$ has been the object of several field-theoretic studies, especially for $`M=1`$, the case that describes the RIM. Several computations have been done in the framework of the $`ϵ`$-expansion  and of the fixed-dimension $`d=3`$ expansion . In these approaches, since field-theoretic perturbative expansions are asymptotic, the resummation of the series is essential to obtain accurate estimates of physical quantities. For pure systems described by the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson Hamiltonian one exploits the Borel summability  of the fixed-dimension expansion (for which Borel summability is proved) and of the $`ϵ`$-expansion (for which Borel summability is conjectured), and the knowledge of the large-order behavior of the series . Resummation procedures using these properties lead to accurate estimates (see e.g. Refs. ).

Much less is known for the quenched disordered models described by $`_{M0}`$. Indeed, the analytic structure of the corresponding field theory is much more complicated. The zero-dimensional model has been investigated in Ref. . They analyze the large-order behavior of the double expansion in the quartic couplings $`u`$ and $`v`$ of the free energy and show that the expansion in powers of $`v`$, keeping the ratio $`\lambda =u/v`$ fixed, is not Borel summable. In Ref. , it is shown that the non-Borel summability is a consequence of the fact that, because of the quenched average, there are additional singularities corresponding to the zeroes of the partition function $`Z(\psi ,g_0)`$ obtained from the Hamiltonian (2). Recently the problem has been reconsidered in Ref. . In the same context of the zero-dimensional model, it has been shown that a more elaborate resummation gives the correct determination of the free energy from its perturbative expansion. The procedure is still based on a Borel summation, which is performed in two steps: first, one resums in the coupling $`v`$ each coefficient of the series in $`u`$; then, one resums the resulting series in the coupling $`u`$. There is no proof that this procedure works also in higher dimensions, since the method relies on the fact that the zeroes of the partition function stay away from the real values of $`v`$. This is far from obvious in higher-dimensional systems.

At present, the most precise field-theoretic results have been obtained using the fixed-dimension expansion in $`d=3`$. Several quantities have been computed: the critical exponents , the equation of state  and the hyperuniversal ratio $`R_\xi ^+`$ . The most precise estimates of the critical exponents for the RIM have been obtained from the analysis of the five-loop fixed-dimension expansion, using Padé-Borel-Leroy approximants . In spite of the fact that the series considered are not Borel summable, the results for the critical exponents are stable: they do not depend on the order of the series, the details of the analysis, and, as we shall see, are in substantial agreement with our results obtained following the precedure proposed in Ref. . This fact may be explained by the observation of Ref.  that the Borel resummation applied in the standard way (i.e. at fixed $`v/u`$) gives a reasonably accurate result for small disorder if one truncates the expansion at an appropriate point, i.e. for not too long series.

The $`MN`$ model has also been extensively studied in the context of the $`ϵ`$-expansion . The critical exponents have been computed to three loops for generic values of $`M`$, $`N`$  and to five loops for $`M=1`$ . Several studies also considered the equation of state  and the two-point correlation function . In spite of these efforts, studies based on the $`ϵ`$-expansion have been not able to go beyond a qualitative description of the physics of three-dimensional randomly dilute spin models. The $`\sqrt{ϵ}`$-expansion  turns out not to be effective for a quantitative study of the RIM (see e.g. the analysis of the five-loop series done in Ref. ). A strictly related scheme is the so-called minimal-subtraction renormalization scheme without $`ϵ`$-expansion . The three-loop  and four-loop  results are in reasonable agreement with the estimates obtained by other methods. At five loops, however, no random fixed point can be found  using this method. This negative result has been interpreted as a consequence of the non-Borel summability of the perturbative expansion. In this case, the four-loop series could represent the “optimal” truncation. We also mention that the Hamiltonian (4) for $`M=1`$ and $`N0`$ has been studied by the scaling-field method .

The randomly dilute Ising model (1) has been investigated by many numerical simulations (see e.g. Refs. ). The first simulations were apparently finding critical exponents depending on the spin concentration. It was later remarked  that this could be simply a crossover effect: the simulations were not probing the critical region and were computing effective exponents strongly biased by the corrections to scaling. Recently, the critical exponents have been computed  using finite-size scaling techniques. They found very strong corrections to scaling, decaying with a rather small exponent $`\omega 0.37(6)`$, — correspondingly $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\omega \nu =0.25(4)`$ — which is approximately a factor of two smaller than the corresponding pure-case exponent. By taking into proper account the confluent corrections, they were able to show that the critical exponents are universal with respect to variations of the spin concentration in a wide interval above the percolation point. Their final estimates are reported in Table II.

In this paper we compute the renormalization-group functions of the generic $`MN`$ model to six loops in the framework of the fixed-dimension $`d=3`$ expansion. We extend the three-loop series of Ref.  and the expansions for the cubic model ($`M=1`$) reported in Ref.  (five loops) and Ref.  (six loops). We will focus here on the case $`N=0`$ corresponding to disordered dilute systems. Higher values of $`N`$ are of interest for several types of magnetic and structural phase transitions and will be discussed in a separate paper. For $`M=1`$ and $`N2`$ the six-loop series have already been analyzed in Ref.  where we investigated the stability of the $`O(N)`$-symmetric point in the presence of cubic interactions. We should mention that two-loop and three-loop series for the $`MN`$ model in the fixed dimension expansion for generic values of $`d`$ have been reported in Refs. .

For $`M=1`$, $`N=0`$, we have performed several analyses of the perturbative series following the method proposed in Ref. . The analysis of the $`\beta `$-functions for the determinaton of the fixed point is particularly delicate and we have not been able to obtain a very robust estimate of the random fixed point. Nonetheless, we derive quite accurate estimates of the critical exponents. Indeed, their expansions are well behaved and largely insensitive to the exact position of the fixed point. Our final estimates are reported in Table II, together with estimates obtained by other approaches. The errors we quote are quite conservative and are related to the variation of the estimates with the different analyses performed. The overall agreement is good: the perturbative method appears to have a good predictive power, in spite of the complicated analytic structure of the Borel transform that does not allow the direct application of the resummation methods used successfully in pure systems. For $`M2`$ and $`N=0`$ we have verified that no fixed point exists in the region $`u<0`$ and that the $`O(M)`$-symmetric fixed point is stable, confirming the general arguments given above.

The paper is organized as follows. In Sec. II we derive the perturbative series for the renormalization-group functions at six loops and discuss the singularities of the Borel transform. The results of the analyses are presented in Sec. III and the final numerical values are reported in Table II.

## II The fixed-dimension perturbative expansion of the three-dimensional $`MN`$ model.

### A Renormalization of the theory.

The fixed-dimension $`\varphi ^4`$ field-theoretic approach  provides an accurate description of the critical properties of $`O(N)`$-symmetric models in the high-temperature phase (see e.g. Ref. ). The method can also be extended to two-parameter $`\varphi ^4`$ models, such as the $`MN`$ model. The idea is to perform an expansion in powers of appropriately defined zero-momentum quartic couplings. The theory is renormalized by introducing a set of zero-momentum conditions for the (one-particle irreducible) two-point and four-point correlation functions:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ai,bj}^{(2)}(p)=\delta _{ai,bj}Z_\varphi ^1\left[m^2+p^2+O(p^4)\right],$$
(5)
where $`\delta _{ai,bj}\delta _{ab}\delta _{ij}`$,

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ai,bj,ck,dl}^{(4)}(0)=Z_\varphi ^2m\left(uS_{ai,bj,ck,dl}+vC_{ai,bj,ck,dl}\right),$$
(6)
and

$`S_{ai,bj,ck,dl}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\left(\delta _{ai,bj}\delta _{ck,dl}+\delta _{ai,ck}\delta _{bj,dl}+\delta _{ai,dl}\delta _{bj,ck}\right),`$ (7)
$`C_{ai,bj,ck,dl}`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _{ij}\delta _{ik}\delta _{il}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\left(\delta _{ab}\delta _{cd}+\delta _{ac}\delta _{bd}+\delta _{ad}\delta _{bc}\right).`$ (8)
Eqs. (5) and (6) relate the second-moment mass $`m`$, and the zero-momentum quartic couplings $`u`$ and $`v`$ to the corresponding Hamiltonian parameters $`r`$, $`u_0`$ and $`v_0`$:

$$u_0=muZ_uZ_\varphi ^2,v_0=mvZ_vZ_\varphi ^2.$$
(9)
In addition we define the function $`Z_t`$ through the relation

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ai,bj}^{(1,2)}(0)=\delta _{ai,bj}Z_t^1,$$
(10)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{(1,2)}`$ is the (one-particle irreducible) two-point function with an insertion of $`\frac{1}{2}\varphi ^2`$.

From the pertubative expansion of the correlation functions $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{(2)}`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{(4)}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{(1,2)}`$ and the above relations, one derives the functions $`Z_\varphi (u,v)`$, $`Z_u(u,v)`$, $`Z_v(u,v)`$, $`Z_t(u,v)`$ as a double expansion in $`u`$ and $`v`$.

The fixed points of the theory are given by the common zeros of the $`\beta `$-functions

$`\beta _u(u,v)`$ $`=`$ $`m{\displaystyle \frac{u}{m}}|_{u_0,v_0},`$ (11)
$`\beta _v(u,v)`$ $`=`$ $`m{\displaystyle \frac{v}{m}}|_{u_0,v_0},`$ (12)
calculated keeping $`u_0`$ and $`v_0`$ fixed. The stability properties of the fixed points are controlled by the matrix

$$\mathrm{\Omega }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{\beta _u(u,v)}{u}& \frac{\beta _u(u,v)}{v}\\ \frac{\beta _v(u,v)}{u}& \frac{\beta _v(u,v)}{v}\end{array}\right),$$
(13)
computed at the given fixed point: a fixed point is stable if both eigenvalues are positive. The eigenvalues $`\omega _i`$ are related to the leading scaling corrections, which vanish as $`\xi ^{\omega _i}|t|^{\mathrm{\Delta }_i}`$ where $`\mathrm{\Delta }_i=\nu \omega _i`$.

One also introduces the functions

$`\eta _\varphi (u,v)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}Z_\varphi }{\mathrm{ln}m}}=\beta _u{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}Z_\varphi }{u}}+\beta _v{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}Z_\varphi }{v}},`$ (14)
$`\eta _t(u,v)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}Z_t}{\mathrm{ln}m}}=\beta _u{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}Z_t}{u}}+\beta _v{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}Z_t}{v}}.`$ (15)
Finally, the critical exponents are obtained from

$`\eta `$ $`=`$ $`\eta _\varphi (u^{},v^{}),`$ (16)
$`\nu `$ $`=`$ $`\left[2\eta _\varphi (u^{},v^{})+\eta _t(u^{},v^{})\right]^1,`$ (17)
$`\gamma `$ $`=`$ $`\nu (2\eta ).`$ (18)
### B The perturbative series to six loops.

We have computed the perturbative expansion of the correlation functions (5), (6) and (10) to six loops. The diagrams contributing to the two-point and four-point functions to six-loop order are reported in Ref. : they are approximately one thousand, and it is therefore necessary to handle them with a symbolic manipulation program. For this purpose, we wrote a package in Mathematica . It generates the diagrams using the algorithm described in Ref. , and computes the symmetry and group factors of each of them. We did not calculate the integrals associated to each diagram, but we used the numerical results compiled in Ref. . Summing all contributions we determined the renormalization constants and all renormalization-group functions.

We report our results in terms of the rescaled couplings

$$u\frac{16\pi }{3}R_{MN}\overline{u},v\frac{16\pi }{3}R_M\overline{v},$$
(19)
where $`R_K=9/(8+K)`$, so that the $`\beta `$-functions associated to $`\overline{u}`$ and $`\overline{v}`$ have the form $`\beta _{\overline{u}}(\overline{u},0)=\overline{u}+\overline{u}^2+O(\overline{u}^3)`$ and $`\beta _{\overline{v}}(0,\overline{v})=\overline{v}+\overline{v}^2+O(\overline{v}^3)`$.

The resulting series are

$`\beta _{\overline{u}}=`$ $`\overline{u}+\overline{u}^2+{\displaystyle \frac{2(2+M)}{8+M}}\overline{u}\overline{v}{\displaystyle \frac{4(190+41MN)}{27(8+MN)^2}}\overline{u}^3`$ (21)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{400(2+M)}{27(8+MN)(8+M)}}\overline{u}^2\overline{v}{\displaystyle \frac{92(2+M)}{27(8+M)^2}}\overline{u}\overline{v}^2+\overline{u}{\displaystyle \underset{i+j3}{}}b_{ij}^{(u)}\overline{u}^i\overline{v}^j,`$
$`\beta _{\overline{v}}=`$ $`\overline{v}+\overline{v}^2+{\displaystyle \frac{12}{8+MN}}\overline{u}\overline{v}{\displaystyle \frac{4(190+41M)}{27(8+M)^2}}\overline{v}^3{\displaystyle \frac{16(131+25M)}{27(8+MN)(8+M)}}\overline{u}\overline{v}^2`$ (23)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{4(370+23MN)}{27(8+MN)^2}}\overline{u}^2\overline{v}+\overline{v}{\displaystyle \underset{i+j3}{}}b_{ij}^{(v)}\overline{u}^i\overline{v}^j,`$
$$\eta _\varphi =\frac{8(2+MN)}{27(8+MN)^2}\overline{u}^2+\frac{16(2+M)}{27(8+MN)(8+M)}\overline{u}\overline{v}+\frac{8(2+M)}{27(8+M)^2}\overline{v}^2+\underset{i+j3}{}e_{ij}^{(\varphi )}\overline{u}^i\overline{v}^j,$$
(24)
$`\eta _t=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2+MN}{8+MN}}\overline{u}{\displaystyle \frac{2+M}{8+M}}\overline{v}+{\displaystyle \frac{2(2+MN)}{(8+MN)^2}}\overline{u}^2`$ (26)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{4(2+M)}{(8+MN)(8+M)}}\overline{u}\overline{v}+{\displaystyle \frac{2(2+M)}{(8+M)^2}}\overline{v}^2+{\displaystyle \underset{i+j3}{}}e_{ij}^{(t)}\overline{u}^i\overline{v}^j.`$
For $`3i+j6`$, The coefficients $`b_{ij}^{(u)}`$, $`b_{ij}^{(v)}`$, $`e_{ij}^{(\varphi )}`$ and $`e_{ij}^{(t)}`$ are reported in the Tables III, IV, V and VI respectively.

We have performed the following checks on our calculations:

* $`\beta _{\overline{u}}(\overline{u},0)`$, $`\eta _\varphi (\overline{u},0)`$ and $`\eta _t(\overline{u},0)`$ reproduce the corresponding functions of the O($`MN`$)-symmetric model ;
* $`\beta _{\overline{v}}(0,\overline{v})`$, $`\eta _\varphi (0,\overline{v})`$ and $`\eta _t(0,\overline{v})`$ reproduce the corresponding functions of the O($`M`$)-symmetric model ;
* For $`M=1`$, the functions $`\beta _{\overline{u}}`$, $`\beta _{\overline{v}}`$, $`\eta _\varphi `$ and $`\eta _t`$ reproduce the corresponding functions of the $`N`$-component cubic model ;
* The following relations hold for $`N=1`$:

$`\beta _{\overline{u}}(u,xu)+\beta _{\overline{v}}(u,xu)=\beta _{\overline{v}}(0,x),`$ (27)
$`\eta _\varphi (u,xu)=\eta _\varphi (0,x),`$ (28)
$`\eta _t(u,xu)=\eta _t(0,x).`$ (29)

### C Borel summability and resummation of the series.

Since field-theoretic perturbative expansions are asymptotic, the resummation of the series is essential to obtain accurate estimates of the physical quantities.

In the case of the O($`N`$)-symmetric $`\varphi ^4`$ theory the expansion is performed in powers of the zero-momentum four-point coupling $`g`$. The large-order behavior of the series $`S(g)=s_kg^k`$ of any quantity is related to the singularity $`g_b`$ of the Borel transform closest to the origin. Indeed, for large $`k`$, the coefficient $`s_k`$ behaves as

$$s_kk!(a)^kk^b\left[1+O(k^1)\right]\mathrm{with}a=1/g_b.$$
(30)
The value of $`g_b`$ depends only on the Hamiltonian, while the exponent $`b`$ depends on which Green’s function is considered. The value of $`g_b`$ can be obtained from a steepest-descent calculation in which the relevant saddle point is a finite-energy solution (instanton) of the classical field equations with negative coupling . Since the Borel transform is singular for $`g=g_b`$, its expansion in powers of $`g`$ converges only for $`|g|<|g_b|`$. An analytic extension can be obtained by a conformal mapping , such as

$$y(g)=\frac{\sqrt{1g/g_b}1}{\sqrt{1g/g_b}+1}.$$
(31)
In this way the Borel transform becomes a series in powers of $`y(g)`$ that converges for all positive values of $`g`$ provided that all singularities of the Borel transform are on the real negative axis . In this case one obtains a convergent sequence of approximations for the original quantity. For the O($`N`$)-symmetric theory accurate estimates (see e.g. Ref. ) have been obtained resumming the available series: the $`\beta `$-function  is known up to six loops, while the functions $`\eta _\varphi `$ and $`\eta _t`$ are known to seven loops .

The large-order behavior of the perturbative expansions in the $`MN`$ model can be studied by employing the same methods used in the standard $`\varphi ^4`$ theory . We may consider the series in $`\overline{u}`$ and $`\overline{v}`$ at fixed ratio $`z\overline{v}/\overline{u}`$. The large-order behavior of the resulting expansion in powers of $`\overline{u}`$ is determined by the singularity of the Borel transform that is closest to the origin, $`\overline{u}_b(z)`$, given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\overline{u}_b(z)}}`$ $`=a\left(R_{MN}+R_Mz\right)`$ $`\mathrm{for}z>0\mathrm{and}z<{\displaystyle \frac{2N}{N+1}}{\displaystyle \frac{R_{MN}}{R_M}},`$ (32)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\overline{u}_b(z)}}`$ $`=a\left(R_{MN}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}R_Mz\right)`$ $`\mathrm{for}{\displaystyle \frac{2N}{N+1}}{\displaystyle \frac{R_{MN}}{R_M}}<z<0.`$ (33)
where

$$a=0.14777422\mathrm{},R_K=\frac{9}{8+K}.$$
(34)
Using Eq. (33) and the conformal mapping (31), one can resum the perturbative series in $`\overline{u}`$ at fixed $`z`$. This method has been applied in Ref.  to the analysis of the renormalization-group functions of the three-dimensional cubic model.

The result (33) has been obtained for integer $`M,N1`$. For $`N=0`$, one may think that the correct behaviour is obtained by analytic continuation of (33), i.e.

$$\frac{1}{\overline{u}_b(z)}=a\left(\frac{9}{8}+R_Mz\right),$$
(35)
for all $`z`$. However, this is not correct. Indeed, as explicitly shown in Refs.  in the context of the zero-dimensional random Ising model, there is an additional contribution to the large-order behavior of the series in $`u`$ at fixed $`\lambda u/v`$, which makes the series non-Borel summable, giving rise to singularities of the Borel transform on the positive real axis. They are due to the zeroes of the partition function at fixed disorder. We have no reason to believe that similar non-Borel summable contributions are not present in higher dimensions. It is likely that the same phenomenon occurs even in three dimensions. As a consequence, a summation procedure based on Eq. (35) and a conformal mapping of the type (31) would not lead to a sequence of approximations converging to the correct result .

Fortunately, this is not the end of the story. As shown recently in Ref. , at least in zero dimensions, one can still resum the perturbative series. Indeed the zero-dimensional free energy can be obtained from its perturbative expansion if one applies a more elaborated procedure which is still based on a Borel summation. Let us write the double expansion of the free energy $`f(u,v)`$ in powers of $`u,v`$ as

$`f(u,v)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}c_n(v)u^n,`$ (36)
$`c_n(v)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}c_{nk}v^k,`$ (37)
The main result of Ref.  is that the expansions of the coefficients (37) and the resulting series at fixed $`v`$, Eq. (36), are Borel summable. Using this result, a resummation of the free energy is obtained in two steps. First, one resums the coefficient $`c_n(v)`$; then, using the computed coefficients, one resums the series in $`u`$. The resummation of Eq. (37) can be performed using the Padé-Borel-Leroy method, as suggested in Ref. . However, also the conformal method can be used, since the large-order behavior is known exactly. Indeed,

$$c_n(v)\frac{^nf(u,v)}{u^n}|_{u=0}.$$
(38)
Thus, $`c_n(v)`$ can be related to zero-momentum correlation functions in the theory with $`u=0`$, which is the standard $`M`$-vector model. Therefore, one can use the well-known results for the large-order behavior of the perturbative series in the O($`M`$)-symmetric theory .

## III Analysis of the six-loop expansion for $`N=0`$

### A The random Ising model

As we said in the Introduction, the random Ising model corresponds to $`M=1`$ and $`N=0`$. There are two relevant fixed points, the Ising and the random point, see Fig. 1. In Ref.  we already discussed the stability of the Ising point. We found that this fixed point is unstable since the stability matrix has a negative eigenvalue $`\omega =0.177(6)`$, in good agreement with the general argument predicting $`\omega =\alpha _I/\nu _I=0.1745(12)`$. We will now investigate the random fixed point, which is stable and determines therefore the critical behaviour of the RIM.

In order to study the critical properties of the random fixed point, we used several different resummation procedures, according to the discussion of the previous Section. Following Ref. , for each quantity we consider, we must perform first a resummation of the series in $`v`$, see Eq. (37). This may be done in two different ways. We can either use the Padé-Borel method, or perform a conformal mapping of the Borel-transformed series, using the known value of the singularity of the Borel transform. Explicitly, let us consider a $`p`$-loop series in $`u`$ and $`v`$ of the form

$$\underset{n=0}{\overset{p}{}}\underset{k=0}{\overset{pn}{}}c_{nk}u^nv^k.$$
(39)
In the first method, for each $`0np`$, we choose a real number $`b_n`$ and a positive integer $`r_n`$ such that $`r_npn`$; then, we consider

$$R_1(c_n)(p;b_n,r_n;v)=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑te^tt^{b_n}\left[\underset{i=0}{\overset{pnr_n}{}}B_i(tv)^i\right]\left[1+\underset{i=1}{\overset{r_n}{}}C_i(tv)^i\right]^1.$$
(40)
The coefficients $`B_i`$ and $`C_i`$ are fixed so that $`R_1(c_n)(p;b_n,r_n;v)=_{k=0}^{pn}c_{nk}v^k+O(v^{pn+1})`$. Here we are resumming the Borel transform of each coefficient of the series in $`u`$ by means of a Padé approximant $`[pnr_n/r_n]`$. Eq. (40) is well defined as long as the integrand is regular for all positive values of $`t`$. However, for some values of the parameters, the Padé approximant has poles on the positive real axis — we will call these cases defective — so that the integral does not exist. These values of $`b_n`$ and $`r_n`$ must of course be discarded.

The second method uses the large-order behaviour of the series and a conformal mapping . In this case, for each $`0np`$, we choose two real numbers $`b_n`$ and $`\alpha _n`$ and consider

$$R_2(c_n)(p;b_n,r_n;v)=\underset{k=0}{\overset{pn}{}}B_k_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑te^tt^{b_n}\frac{(y(vt))^k}{(1y(vt))^{\alpha _n}},$$
(41)
where

$$y(t)=\frac{\sqrt{|\overline{g}_I|+t}\sqrt{|\overline{g}_I|}}{\sqrt{|\overline{g}_I|+t}+\sqrt{|\overline{g}_I|}},$$
(42)
and $`\overline{g}_I=1/a`$ is the singularity of the Borel transform for the pure Ising model. The numerical value of $`a`$ is given in Eq. (34). Using these two methods we obtain two different partial resummations of the original series (39):

$`{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{p}{}}}R_1(c_n)(p;b_n,r_n;v)u^n,`$ (43)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{p}{}}}R_2(c_n)(p;b_n,\alpha _n;v)u^n.`$ (44)
Nothing is known on the asymptotic behaviour of these series, and we will thus use the Padé-Borel method. Starting from Eq. (43) we will thus consider

$$E_1(c)(q,p;b_u,r_u;\{b_n\},\{r_n\})_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑te^tt^{b_u}\left[\underset{i=0}{\overset{qr_u}{}}B_i(v)(tu)^i\right]\left[1+\underset{i=1}{\overset{r_u}{}}C_i(v)(tu)^i\right]^1.$$
(45)
The coefficients $`B_i(v)`$ and $`C_i(v)`$ are fixed so that $`E_1(c)(q,p;b_u,r_u;\{b_n\},\{r_n\})`$ coincides with the expansion (43) up to terms of order $`O(u^{q+1})`$. Note that we have introduced here three additional parameters: $`b_u`$, the power appearing in the Borel transform, $`r_u`$ that fixes the order of the Padé approximant, and $`q`$ which indicates the number of terms that are resummed, and that, in the following, will always satisfy $`qp1`$. Analogously, starting from Eq. (44), we define $`E_2(c)(q,p;b_u,r_u;\{b_n\},\{\alpha _n\})`$. We will call the first method the “double Padé-Borel” method, while the second will be named the ”conformal Padé-Borel” method.

Let us now apply these methods to the computation of the fixed point $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})`$. In this case, we resum the $`\beta `$-functions $`\beta _u/u`$ and $`\beta _v/v`$ and then look for a common zero with $`u<0`$. We consider first the resummation $`E_1`$, Eq. (45). A detailed analysis shows that the coefficients $`R_1`$ can only be defined for $`r_n=1`$. We have also tried $`r_0=2`$ and $`r_1=2`$, but the resulting Padé approximants turned out defective. Therefore, we have fixed $`r_n=1`$ for all $`0n5`$. We must also fix the parameters $`\{b_n\}`$. It is impossible to vary all of them independently, since there are too many combinations. For this reason, we have taken all $`b_n`$ equal, i.e. we have set $`b_n=b_v`$ for all $`n`$. Finally, we have only considered the case $`q=p1`$. Therefore, the analysis is based on the approximants

$$\widehat{E}_1()(p;b_u,r_u;b_v)=E_1()(p1,p;b_u,r_u;\{b_n=b_v\},\{r_n=1\}).$$
(46)
Estimates of the fixed point $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})`$ have been obtained by solving the equations

$$\widehat{E}_1(\beta _{\overline{u}}/\overline{u})(p;b_u,r_u;b_v)=0,\widehat{E}_1(\beta _{\overline{v}}/\overline{v})(p;b_u,r_u;b_v)=0.$$
(47)
We have used $`r_u=1,2`$, $`p=4,5,6`$ and we have varied $`b_u`$ and $`b_v`$ between 0 and 20. As usual in these procedures, we must determine the optimal values of the parameters $`b_u`$ and $`b_v`$. This is usually accomplished by looking for values of $`b_u`$ and $`b_v`$ such that the estimates are essentially independent of the order $`p`$ of the series. In the present case, we have not been able to find any such pair. Indeed, the five-loop results ($`p=5`$) are systematically higher than those obtained with $`p=4`$ and $`p=6`$. For instance, if we average all estimates with $`0b_u,b_v5`$ we obtain

$`\overline{u}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`0.66(1)(p=4),0.78(2)(p=5),0.63(3)(p=6);`$ (48)
$`\overline{v}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`2.235(3)(p=4),2.273(4)(p=5),2.250(23)(p=6).`$ (49)
The uncertainties quoted here are the standard deviations of the estimates in the quoted interval and show that the dependence on $`b_u`$, $`b_v`$, and $`r_u`$ is very small compared to the variation of the results with $`p`$. Increasing $`b_u,b_v`$ does not help, since the five-loop result is largely insensitive to variations of the parameters, while for $`p=4`$ and $`p=6`$ $`|\overline{u}^{}|`$ and $`\overline{v}^{}`$ decrease with increasing $`b_u`$ and $`b_v`$. It is difficult to obtain a final estimate from these results. We quote

$$\overline{u}^{}=0.68(10),\overline{v}^{}=2.25(2),$$
(50)
that includes all estimates reported above.

The instability of the results reported above with $`p`$ seems to indicate that some of the hypotheses underlying the choice of the parameters is probably incorrect. One may suspect that choosing all $`b_n`$ equal does not allow a correct resummation of the coefficients, and that $`\beta _{\overline{u}}`$ and $`\beta _{\overline{v}}`$ need different choices of the parameters. We have therefore tried a second strategy. First, for each $`\beta `$-function, we have carefully analyzed each coefficient of the series in $`u`$, trying to find an optimal value of the parameter $`b_n`$$`r_n`$ was fixed in all cases equal to 1 — by requiring the stability of the estimates of the coefficient with respect to a change of the order of the series. However, only for the first two coefficients we were able to identify a stable region, so that we could not apply this method. On the other hand, as we shall see, this method works very well for the resummations of the coefficients that use the conformal mapping.

Let us now discuss the conformal Padé-Borel method. As before, we have tried two different strategies. In the first case we have set all $`b_n`$ equal to $`b_v`$ and all $`\alpha _n`$ equal to $`\alpha _v`$, we have used the same parameters for the two $`\beta `$-functions, and we have looked for optimal values of $`b_u`$, $`b_v`$ and $`\alpha _v`$, setting $`r_u=1,2`$. While before, for each $`p`$, the estimates were stable, in this case the fluctuations for each fixed $`p`$ are very large, and no estimate can be obtained.

Then, we applied the second strategy. We analyzed carefully each coefficient of the series in $`u`$, finding optimal values $`b_{n,\mathrm{opt}}`$ and $`\alpha _{n,\mathrm{opt}}`$ for each $`n`$ and $`\beta `$-function. Of course, the required stability analysis can only be performed if the series is long enough, and thus we have always taken $`q4`$. Therefore, we consider

$$\widehat{E}_2()(q,p;b_u,r_u;\delta _b,\delta _\alpha )=E_2()(q,p;b_u,r_u;\{b_{n,\mathrm{opt}}+\delta _b\},\{\alpha _{n,\mathrm{opt}}+\delta _\alpha \}),$$
(51)
where $`\delta _\alpha `$ and $`\delta _b`$ are ($`n`$-independent) numbers which allow us to vary $`b_n`$ and $`\alpha _n`$ around the optimal values. Estimates of the fixed point are obtained from

$$\widehat{E}_2(\beta _{\overline{u}}/\overline{u})(q,p;b_u,r_{1,u};\delta _b,\delta _\alpha )=0,\widehat{E}_2(\beta _{\overline{v}}/\overline{v})(q,p;b_u,r_{2,u};\delta _b,\delta _\alpha )=0.$$
(52)
The first problem which must be addressed is the value of the parameters $`r_{1,u}`$ and $`r_{2,u}`$. For $`\beta _{\overline{u}}/\overline{u}`$ we find that the Padé approximants are always defective for $`r_{1,u}=1,2`$; they are well behaved only for $`r_{1,u}=3`$ and $`q=4`$. Since the resummed series in $`u`$ has coefficients that are quite small, we decided to use also $`r_{1,u}=0`$, which corresponds to a direct summation of the series in $`u`$, without any Padé-Borel transformation. For $`\beta _{\overline{v}}/\overline{v}`$ we did not observe a regular pattern for the defective Padé’s and we have used $`r_{2,u}=1,2`$, discarding all defective cases.

The results, for chosen values of $`p`$, $`q`$, and $`r_{1,u}`$ are reported in Table VII. The quoted uncertainty is the standard deviation of the results when $`3\delta _b3`$ and $`1\delta _\alpha 1`$. This choice is completely arbitrary, but in similar analyses of different models we found that varying $`\alpha `$ by $`\pm 1`$ and $`b`$ by $`\pm 3`$ provides a reasonable estimate of the error. Notice that we have not optimized $`b_u`$, but we have averaged over all values between 0 and 20, since the dependence on this parameter is extremely small. The results are stable, giving a final estimate (average of the results with $`p=6`$, $`q=4`$)

$$\overline{u}^{}=0.631(16),\overline{v}^{}=2.195(20).$$
(53)
The error bars have been chosen in such a way to include all central values for $`p=5`$ and $`p=6`$. It should be noted that, even if our results are quite stable with respect to changes of the parameters, most of the approximants do not contribute since they are defective. For these reasons, in the following we will always carefully check the dependence of the estimates on the value of the fixed point, considering also values of $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})`$ that are well outside the confidence intervals of Eq. (53).

We can compare our results for the fixed point with previous determinations. Ref.  reports $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})=(0.667,2.244)`$ obtained from the Chisholm-Borel analysis of the four-loop series. The same expansion was also analyzed by Varnashev  obtaining $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})=(0.582(85),2.230(83))`$ and $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})=(0.625(60),2.187(56))`$ using different sets of Padé approximants. The $`ϵ`$-algorithm by Wynn with a Mittag-Leffler transform was used in Ref.  finding $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})=(0.587,2.178)`$. From the analysis of the five-loop series Pakhnin and Sokolov  obtain $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})=(0.711(12),2.261(18))`$. While the four-loop results are in good agreement with our estimates, the five-loop estimate differs significantly, a fact that may indicate that the claim of Ref.  that the error on their estimates is approximately 1–2% is rather optimistic. Note also that the five-loop result is quite different from the previous four-loop estimates.

We have also tried to determine the eigenvalues of the stability matrix $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, cf. Eq. (13), that controls the subleading corrections in the model. We used both a double Padé-Borel transformation and the conformal-Padé-Borel method. In the first case we obtain estimates that vary strongly with the order, and, as it happened for the position of the fixed point, it is impossible to obtain results that are insensitive to the order $`p`$. For $`r_u=1`$, discarding the cases in which the computed eigenvalues are complex, we obtain for the smallest eigenvalue $`\omega `$:

$$\omega =0.16(2)(p=4),0.21(3)(p=5),0.16(3)(p=6).$$
(54)
We have included in the error the dependence on the position of the fixed point. These estimates have been obtained setting $`r_n=1`$ and averaging over $`b_u`$ and $`b_v`$ varying between 0 and 10. We have not tried to optimize the choice of these parameters, since the estimates show only a small dependence on them. We have also considered $`r_u=2`$. In this case a large fraction of the approximants is defective (for $`p=4`$ they are all defective). We obtain

$$\omega =0.29(4)(p=5),0.33(5)(p=6).$$
(55)
The quite large discrepancy between the estimates (54) and (55) clearly indicates that the analysis is not very robust. A conservative final estimate is

$$\omega =0.25(10),$$
(56)
that includes the previous results.

We have also tried the conformal-Padé-Borel method, optimizing separately each coefficient . However, several problem appeared immediately. First, we could not perform a Padé-Borel resummation of the series in $`u`$ of the elements of the stability matrix. Indeed, in all cases, some Padé approximant was defective. As in the determination of the fixed-point position, we tried to resum the series in $`u`$ without any additional transformation. For $`p=4`$ this gives reasonable results, and we can estimate $`\omega =0.29(9)`$. However, for $`p=5,6`$ all eigenvalues we find are complex, and as such must be discarded.

The fact that the series appearing in the stability matrix generate always defective Padé approximants may indicate that the series in $`u`$ are not Borel summable. In this case, one expects that the estimates converge towards the correct value up to a certain number of loops. Increasing further the length of the series, worsens the final results. If indeed the expansion is not Borel summable, the previous results seem to indicate that for the subleading exponent $`\omega `$ the best results are obtained at four loops.

Let us now compute the critical exponents. As before, we tried several different methods. A first estimate was determined using the double Padé-Borel method. Each exponent was computed from the approximants $`\widehat{E}_1(ϵ)(p;b_u,r_u;b_v)`$ defined in Eq. (46). For $`\gamma `$ and $`\nu `$, the series $`1/\gamma `$ and $`1/\nu `$ are more stable and thus the final estimates are obtained from their analysis. For $`\eta `$, if we write $`\eta =\eta _n(v)u^n`$, then $`\eta _0(v)v^2`$ and $`\eta _1(v)v`$. In this case, for $`n=0`$ we resummed the series $`\eta _0(v)/v^2`$, while for $`n=1`$ we considered $`\eta _1(v)/v`$. The results we obtain are very stable, even if we do not optimize the parameters $`b_u`$ and $`b_v`$.

Without choosing any particular value for them, but simply averaging over all values between 0 and 10, we obtain the results of Table VIII. Note that we have not quoted any estimate of $`\eta `$ for $`p=4`$: in all cases, some Padé approximant was defective. The quoted uncertainty, that expresses the variation of the estimates when changing $`b_u`$, $`b_v`$, and $`r_u`$, is very small, and it is clear that it cannot be interpreted as a correct estimate of the error, since the variation with the order $`p`$ of the series is much larger. In Table VIII we also report the estimates of the exponents corresponding to several different values of $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})`$: beside the estimate (53), we consider two values appearing in the first analysis of the fixed point position, those with the largest and smallest value of $`\overline{u}^{}`$, when $`b_u`$ and $`b_v`$ vary in $`[0,5]`$. The dependence on $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})`$ is quite small, of the same order of the dependence on the order $`p`$. As final estimate we quote the value obtained for $`p=6`$, using the estimate (53) for the fixed point. The error is estimated by the difference between the results with $`p=5`$ and $`p=6`$. Therefore we have

$$\gamma =1.313(14),\nu =0.668(6),\eta =0.0327(19).$$
(57)
Note that, within one error bar, all estimates of $`\gamma `$ and $`\nu `$ reported in Table VIII are compatible with the results given above. Instead, the estimates of $`\eta `$ show a stronger dependence on the critical point, and a priori, since we do not know how reliable are the uncertainties reported in Eq. (53), it is possible that the correct estimate is outside the confidence interval reported above.

We will now use the conformal Padé-Borel method. A first estimate is obtained considering approximants of the form

$$\widehat{E}_3()(q,p;b_u,r_u;b_v,\alpha _v)=E_2()(q,p;b_u,r_u;\{b_n=b_v\},\{\alpha _n=\alpha _v\}),$$
(58)
setting all $`b_n`$ equal to $`b_v`$ and $`\alpha _n`$ equal to $`\alpha _v`$. The results show a tiny dependence on $`b_u`$, while no systematic difference is observed between the approximants with $`r_u=1`$ and $`r_u=2`$. Therefore, we averaged over all non-defective results with $`0b_u10`$ and $`r_u=1,2`$. Then, we looked for optimal intervals $`[\alpha _{\mathrm{opt}}\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha ,\alpha _{\mathrm{opt}}+\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha ]`$, $`[b_{\mathrm{opt}}\mathrm{\Delta }b,b_{\mathrm{opt}}+\mathrm{\Delta }b]`$ for the parameters $`\alpha _v`$ and $`b_v`$. They were determined by minimizing the discrepancies among the estimates corresponding to $`(p,q)=(5,3)`$, $`(5,4)`$, $`(6,3)`$, and $`(6,4)`$. Using $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }b=3`$ as we did before, we obtain $`b_{\mathrm{opt}}=5`$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{opt}}=0.5`$. The results corresponding to this choice of parameters are reported in Table IX. As final estimate we quote the value obtained for $`p=6`$ and $`q=4`$, using the estimate (53) for the fixed point:

$$\gamma =1.338(21),\nu =0.676(11),\eta =0.0279(5).$$
(59)
For $`\gamma `$ and $`\nu `$ the estimates given above are compatible with all results of Table IX. In particular, they are correct even if the error in Eq. (53) is underestimated. They are also in good agreement with the estimates obtained with the double Padé-Borel transformation, cf. Eq. (57). On the other hand, it is not clear if the error on $`\eta `$ is reliable. Indeed, comparison with Eq. (57) may indicate that the correct value of $`\eta `$ is larger than what predicted by this analysis.

As we did for the fixed point, we can also use the approximants $`\widehat{E}_2`$ defined in Eq. (51), optimizing separately each coefficient. The results are reported in Table X and correspond to $`0b_u10`$, $`3\delta _b3`$, $`1\delta _\alpha 1`$ and $`r_u=1,2`$. As it can be seen from the very small “errors” on the results, the dependence on $`b_u`$ is tiny and we have not tried to optimize this parameter. The results are reasonably stable with respect to changes of $`p`$ and $`q`$ and also the dependence on the value of the fixed point is small. As final results from this analysis we quote the values obtained with $`p=6`$ and $`q=4`$:

$$\gamma =1.321(8),\nu =0.681(1),\eta =0.0313(5).$$
(60)
We can compare these results with the previous estimates (57) and (59). The agreement is reasonable, although the quoted error on $`\nu `$ and $`\eta `$ is probably underestimated. This is confirmed by the fact that the scaling relation $`\gamma =(2\eta )\nu `$ is not satisfied within error bars: indeed, using the estimates of $`\nu `$ and $`\eta `$, we get $`\gamma =1.341(2)`$.

We want now to obtain final estimates from the analyses given above. Since in the conformal Padé-Borel method we make use of some additional information, the position of the singularity of the Borel transform, we believe this analysis to be the more reliable one. As our finale estimate we have therefore considered the average between (59) and (60), fixing the error in such a way to include also the estimates (57). In this way we obtain

$$\gamma =1.330(17),\nu =0.678(10),\eta =0.030(3).$$
(61)
A check of these results is provided by the scaling relation $`\gamma =\nu (2\eta )`$. Using the values of $`\nu `$ and $`\eta `$ we obtain $`\gamma =1.336(20)`$ in good agreement with the direct estimate. A second check of these results is given by the inequalities $`\nu 2/30.66667`$ and $`\gamma +2\eta /34/31.33333`$, that are clearly satisfied by our estimates, e.g. $`\gamma +2\eta /3=1.350(17)`$. Finally, we want to stress that our final estimates (61) are compatible with all results appearing in Tables VIII, IX, and X, even those computed for $`(\overline{u}^{},\overline{v}^{})`$ largely different from the estimate (53). Thus, we believe that our error estimates take properly into account the uncertainty on the position of the fixed point.

Using the scaling relations $`\alpha =23\nu `$ and $`\beta =\frac{1}{2}\nu (1+\eta )`$ we have

$$\alpha =0.034(30),\beta =0.349(5).$$
(62)
For comparison we have also performed the direct analysis of the perturbative series, resumming the expansions for fixed $`\overline{v}^{}/\overline{u}^{}`$. In zero dimensions, these series are not Borel summable, and this is expected to be true in any dimension. However, for the short series we are considering, we can still hope to obtain reasonable results. We have used the same procedures described in Ref. , performing a conformal transformation and using $`\overline{u}_b(z)`$ given in Eq. (35) as position of the singularity. We obtain

$`\overline{u}^{}=0.763(25),`$ $`\overline{v}^{}=2.306(43);`$ (63)
$`\gamma =1.327(12),\nu =0.673(8),`$ $`\eta =0.029(3),\omega =0.34(11).`$ (64)
The estimate of the fixed point is very different from that computed before. This may indicate that the non-Borel summability causes a large systematic error in this type of analysis. Probably the optimal truncation for the $`\beta `$-functions corresponds to shorter series. On the other hand, the critical exponents show a tiny dependence on the position of the fixed point. The estimates we obtain are in good agreement with our previous ones, indicating that the exponent series are much better behaved.

Let us now compare our results with previous field-theoretic determinations, see Table XI. We observe a very good agrement with all the reported results. Note that our error bars on $`\gamma `$ and $`\nu `$ are larger than those previously quoted. We believe our uncertainties to be more realistic. Indeed, we have often found in this work, that Padé-Borel estimates are insensitive to the parameters used in the analysis, in particular to the parameter $`b`$ characterizing the Borel-Leroy transform. Therefore, error estimates based on this criterion may underestimate the uncertainty of the results. The perturbative results reported in Table XI correspond to the massive scheme in fixed dimension $`d=3`$ and to the minimal subtraction scheme without $`ϵ`$-expansion. It should be noted that the latter scheme does not provide any estimate at five loops . Indeed, at this order the resummed $`\beta `$-function do not have any zero in the region $`u<0`$. This fact is probably related to the fact that the series which is analyzed is not Borel-summable. Therefore, perturbative expansions should have an optimal truncation beyond which the quality of the results worsens. For the $`\beta `$-functions in the minimal subtraction scheme, the optimal number of loops appears to be four. Two other methods have been used to compute the critical exponents: the scaling-field method  and the $`\sqrt{ϵ}`$-expansion . The former gives reasonable results, while the latter is unable to provide quantitative estimates of critical quantities, see e.g. Ref. . We can also compare our results with the recent Monte Carlo estimates of Ref. . The agreement is quite good for $`\gamma `$ and $`\nu `$, while our estimate of $`\eta `$ is slightly smaller, although still compatible within one error bar. This is not unexpected and appears as a general feature of the $`d=3`$-expansion: indeed, also for the pure model, the estimate of $`\eta `$ obtained in the fixed-dimension expansion is lower than the Monte Carlo and high-temperature results (see Ref.  and references therein).

### B The random $`M`$-vector model for $`M2`$

In this Section we consider the random vector model for $`M2`$. First, we have studied the region $`u<0`$, looking for a possible fixed point. We have not found any stable solution, in agreement with the general arguments given in the introduction: the mixed point is indeed located in the region $`u>0`$, and it is therefore irrelevant for the critical behavior of the dilute model. What remains to be checked is the stability of the $`O(M)`$ fixed point. As we mentioned in the introduction, a general argument predicts that this fixed point is stable; the random (cubic) perturbation introduces only subleading corrections with exponent $`\omega =\alpha _M/\nu _M`$. This exponent can be easily computed from

$$\omega =\frac{\beta _{\overline{u}}}{\overline{u}}(0,\overline{v}),$$
(65)
which is $`N`$-independent as expected.

The analysis is identical to that performed for the stability of the Ising point in Ref. . We use a conformal transformation and the large-order behavior of the series; then we fix the optimal values $`b_{\mathrm{opt}}`$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{opt}}`$ of the parameters by requiring the estimates of $`\overline{v}^{}`$ and $`\omega `$ to be stable with respect to the order of the series used. The errors were obtained varying $`\alpha `$ and $`b`$ in the intervals $`[\alpha _{\mathrm{opt}}2,\alpha _{\mathrm{opt}}+2]`$ and $`[b_{\mathrm{opt}}3,b_{\mathrm{opt}}+3]`$. As in Ref. , the final result is reported with an uncertainty corresponding to two standard deviations.

The final results for some values of $`M`$ are reported in Table XII, together with estimates of the theoretical prediction $`\alpha _M/\nu _M`$. For $`M3`$ these results clearly indicate that the $`O(M)`$-symmetric point is stable. The results are somewhat lower than the theoretical prediction, especially if we consider the high-temperature estimates of the critical exponents of Ref. . This is not surprising: indeed the estimates of the subleading exponents $`\omega `$ show in many cases discrepancies with estimates obtained by using other methods. This is probably connected to the non-analyticity of the $`\beta `$-function at the fixed point . A similar discrepancy, although still well within a combined error bar, is observed for $`M=2`$. In this case, we obtain $`\omega >0`$, indicating that the fixed point is stable. The error however does not allow to exclude the opposite case.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Victor Martín-Mayor and Giorgio Parisi for useful discussions.


text:
# ITFA–2000–04 Effect of CP-violation on the sphaleron rate

## Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jan Smit and Chris van Weert for useful discussions.