QFT with Tensorial and Local Degrees of Freedom: Phase Structure from Functional Renormalization

Abstract: Field theories with combinatorial non-local interactions such as tensor invariants are interesting candidates for describing a phase transition from discrete quantum-gravitational to continuum geometry. In the so-called cyclic-melonic potential approximation of a tensorial field theory on the $r$-dimensional torus it was recently shown using functional renormalization group techniques that no such phase transition to a condensate phase with a tentative continuum geometric interpretation is possible. Here, keeping the same approximation, we show how to overcome this limitation amending the theory by local degrees freedom on $\mathbb{R}^d$. We find that the effective $r-1$ dimensions of the torus part dynamically vanish along the renormalization group flow while the $d$ local dimensions persist up to small momentum scales. Consequently, for $d>2$ one can find a phase structure allowing also for phase transitions.