Spiral flow of quantum quartic oscillator with energy cutoff

Abstract: Theory of the quantum quartic oscillator is developed with close attention to the energy cutoff one needs to impose on the system in order to approximate the smallest eigenvalues and corresponding eigenstates of its Hamiltonian by diagonalizing matrices of limited size. The matrices are obtained by evaluating matrix elements of the Hamiltonian between the associated harmonic-oscillator eigenstates and by correcting the computed matrices to compensate for their limited dimension, using the Wilsonian renormalization-group procedure. The cutoff dependence of the corrected matrices is found to be described by a spiral motion of a three-dimensional vector. This behavior is shown to result from a combination of a limit-cycle and a floating fixed-point behaviors, a distinct feature of the foundational quantum system that warrants further study. A brief discussion of the research directions concerning renormalization of polynomial interactions of degree higher than four, spontaneous symmetry breaking and coupling of more than one oscillator through the near neighbor couplings known in condensed matter and quantum field theory, is included.