One-particle irreducible Wilson action in the gradient flow exact renormalization group formalism

Abstract: We define a one-particle irreducible (1PI) Wilson action in the gradient flow exact renormalization group (GFERG) formalism as the Legendre transform of a Wilson action. We consider quantum electrodynamics in particular, and show that the GFERG flow equation preserves the invariance of the 1PI Wilson action (excluding the gauge-fixing term) under the \emph{conventional\/} $U(1)$ gauge transformation. This is in contrast to the invariance of the original Wilson action under a modified $U(1)$ gauge transformation. The global chiral transformation also takes the \emph{conventional\/} form for the 1PI Wilson action. Despite the complexity of the GFERG flow equation, the conventional form of the gauge and global chiral transformations may allow us to introduce a non-perturbative Ansatz for gauge and chiral invariant 1PI Wilson actions.