Würzburg Seminar on Quantum Field Theory and Gravity

We investigate the critical behavior of a family of $\mathbb{Z}_2$-symmetric scalar field theories on the Bethe lattice (the tree limit of regular hyperbolic tessellations) using both the non-perturbative Functional Renormalization Group and lattice perturbation theory. The family is indexed by the parameter $\zeta \in (0,1]$, which determines the range of the theory via the kinetic term constructed from the graph Laplacian raised to the power $\zeta$. Specifically, $\zeta=1$ is the short-range theory, while $0<\zeta<1$ defines the long-range model. Due to the hyperbolic nature of Bethe lattices, the Laplacian lacks a zero mode and exhibits a spectral gap. We find that upon closing this spectral gap by a modification of the Laplacian, the scalar field theories exhibit novel critical behavior in the form of non-trivial fixed points with critical exponents governed by $\zeta$ and the spectral dimension $d_s=3$. In particular, our analysis indicates the presence of a Wilson-Fisher fixed point for the short range $\zeta =1$ theory. In contrast, the nearest‐neighbor Ising model on the Bethe lattice is known to exhibit mean‐field critical exponents. To the best of our knowledge, this work provides the first evidence that a scalar $\phi^4$ theory and the discrete Ising model on the same underlying lattice may lie in distinct universality classes.