n-Particle Irreducible Effective Actions (nPIEA) are a powerful tool for extracting nonperturbative and non-equilibrium physics from quantum field theories. Unfortunately, practical truncations of nPIEA can unphysically violate symmetries. Pilaftsis and Teresi (PT) addressed this by introducing a "symmetry improvement" scheme in the context of the 2PIEA for an O (2) scalar theory, ensuring that the Goldstone boson is massless in the broken symmetry phase [A. Pilaftsis and D. Teresi, Nuclear Physics B 874, 2 (2013), pp. 594-619.]. We extend this idea by introducing a symmetry improved 3PIEA for O (N ) theories, for which the basic variables are the one-, twoand three-point correlation functions. This requires the imposition of a Ward identity involving the three-point function. We find that the method leads to an infinity of physically distinct schemes, though a field theoretic analogue of d'Alembert's principle is used to single out a unique scheme. The standard equivalence hierarchy of nPIEA no longer holds with symmetry improvement and we investigate the difference between the symmetry improved 3PIEA and 2PIEA. We present renormalized equations of motion and counter-terms for two and three loop truncations of the effective action, though we leave their numerical solution to future work. We solve the Hartree-Fock approximation and find that our method achieves a middle ground between the unimproved 2PIEA and PT methods. The phase transition predicted by our method is weakly first order and the Goldstone theorem is satisfied, while the PT method correctly predicts a second order phase transition. In contrast, the unimproved 2PIEA predicts a strong first order transition with large violations of the Goldstone theorem. We also show that, in contrast to PT, the two loop truncation of the symmetry improved 3PIEA does not predict the correct Higgs decay rate although the three loop truncation does, at least to leading order. These results suggest that symmetry improvement should not be applied to nPIEA truncated to < n loops. We also show that symmetry improvement schemes are compatible with the Coleman-Mermin-Wagner theorem, giving a check on the consistency of the formalism.

We investigate the linear response of an O (N ) scalar quantum field theory subject to external perturbations using the symmetry improved two particle irreducible effective action (SI-2PIEA) formalism [A. Pilaftsis and D. Teresi, Nucl. Phys. B874, 594 (2013)]. Despite satisfactory equilibrium behavior, we find a number of unphysical effects at the linear response level. Goldstone boson field fluctuations are over-determined, with the only consistent solution being to set the fluctuations and their driving sources to zero, except for momentum modes where the Higgs and Goldstone selfenergies obey a particular relationship. Also Higgs field fluctuations propagate masslessly, despite the Higgs propagator having the correct mass. These pathologies are independent of any truncation of the effective action and still exist even if we relax the over-determining Ward identities, so long as the constraint is formulated O (N )-covariantly. We discuss possible reasons for the apparent incompatibility of the constraints and linear response approximation and possible ways forward.

Two particle irreducible effective actions (2PIEAs) are valuable non-perturbative techniques in quantum field theory; however, finite truncations of them violate the Ward identities (WIs) of theories with spontaneously broken symmetries. The symmetry improvement (SI) method of Pilaftsis and Teresi attempts to overcome this by imposing the WIs as constraints on the solution; however the method suffers from the non-existence of solutions in linear response theory and in certain truncations in equilibrium. Motivated by this, we introduce a new method called soft symmetry improvement (SSI) which relaxes the constraint. Violations of WIs are allowed but punished in a least-squares implementation of the symmetry improvement idea. A new parameter $\xi$ controls the strength of the constraint. The method interpolates between the unimproved ($\xi \to \infty$) and SI ($\xi \to 0$) cases and the hope is that practically useful solutions can be found for finite $\xi$. We study the SSI-2PIEA for a scalar O(N) model in the Hartree-Fock approximation. We find that the method is IR sensitive: the system must be formulated in finite volume $V$ and temperature $T=\beta^{-1}$ and the $V\beta \to \infty$ limit taken carefully. Three distinct limits exist. Two are equivalent to the unimproved 2PIEA and SI-2PIEA respectively, and the third is a new limit where the WI is satisfied but the phase transition is strongly first order and solutions can fail to exist depending on $\xi$. Further, these limits are disconnected from each other; there is no smooth way to interpolate from one to another. These results suggest that any potential advantages of SSI methods, and indeed any application of (S)SI methods out of equilibrium, must occur in finite volume.Comment: Two ancillary Mathematica notebooks included: one for renormalization and one for solving the finite equations of motion. Uses pdflatex. 18 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to PRD. v2 changes: a number of stylistic improvements and a few references adde

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Approximations based on two-particle irreducible (2PI) effective actions (also known as Φ-derivable, Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis or Luttinger-Ward functionals depending on context) have been widely used in condensed matter and nonequilibrium quantum/statistical field theory because this formalism gives a robust, self-consistent, non-perturbative and systematically improvable approach which avoids problems with secular time evolution. The strengths of 2PI approximations are often described in terms of a selective resummation of Feynman diagrams to infinite order. However, the Feynman diagram series is asymptotic and summation is at best a dangerous procedure. Here we show that, at least in the context of a toy model where exact results are available, the true strength of 2PI approximations derives from their self-consistency rather than any resummation. This self-consistency allows truncated 2PI approximations to capture the branch points of physical amplitudes where adjustments of coupling constants can trigger an instability of the vacuum. This, in effect, turns Dyson's argument for the failure of perturbation theory on its head. As a result we find that 2PI approximations perform better than Padé approximation and are competitive with Borel-Padé resummation. Finally, we introduce a hybrid 2PI-Padé method.