Renormalization flow towards gravitational catalysis in the 3d Gross-Neveu model

Abstract: Catalyzed symmetry breaking arises from a parametric enhancement of critical fluctuations independently of the coupling strength. Symmetry-breaking fermionic long-range fluctuations exhibit such an enhancement on negatively curved spaces, as is known from mean-field studies. We study gravitational catalysis from the viewpoint of the functional renormalization group using the 3d Gross-Neveu model as a specific example. We observe gravitational catalysis towards a phase of broken discrete chiral symmetry both on a maximally symmetric (AdS) and on a purely spatially curved manifold for constant negative curvature (Lobachevsky plane). The resulting picture for gravitational catalysis obtained from the renormalization flow is closely related to that of magnetic catalysis. As an application, we estimate the curvature required for subcritical systems of finite length to acquire a gravitionally catalyzed gap.