This method partly grew out of attempts to eliminate the infinites arising in high energy physics, where it is sometimes performed using infinite ‘counterterms’. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this general method that Wilson used to treat the Kondo problem, that describes a flow of theories towards ‘fixed points’. Standard model calculations require this procedure to ‘tame infinities’ and can be performed by introducing an energy cutoff.
ANSWER: renormalization (group) [prompt on regularisation]
[10e] Renormalization group fixed points are responsible for the universal behaviour found near the second order type of these processes which include water turning into ice or superconductors becoming conductors at their critical temperature.
ANSWER: phase transitions [prompt on critical points or criticality]
[10h] RG fixed points are described by CFTs which makes calculations in 2D much easier. In 3D though, this axiomatic technique aims to use self-consistency requirements to calculate critical exponents, and has yielded the best such values for the Ising model.
ANSWER: conformal bootstrap