Dynamic renormalization
H.C. Öttinger

Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract: We show how the dynamic renormalization of nonequilibrium systems can be carried out within the general framework of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Whereas the renormalization of Hamiltonians is well-known from equilibrium thermodynamics, the renormalization of dissipative brackets, or friction matrices, is the main new feature for nonequilibrium systems. Renormalization turns out to be a reduction rather than a coarse-graining technique, that is, no new dissipative processes arise in the dynamic renormalization procedure. The general ideas are illustrated for dilute polymer solutions where, in renormalizing bead-spring chain models, dissipative hydrodynamic interactions between different smaller beads contribute to the friction coefficient of a single larger bead. An outlook on the dynamic renormalization of gelation dynamics is given.