Various aspects of the Exact Renormalization Group (ERG) are explored, starting with a review of the concepts underpinning the framework and the circumstances under which it is expected to be useful. A particular emphasis is placed on the intuitive picture provided for both renormalization in quantum field theory and universality associated with second order phase transitions. A qualitative discussion of triviality, asymptotic freedom and asymptotic safety is presented.Focusing on scalar field theory, the construction of assorted flow equations is considered using a general approach, whereby different ERGs follow from field redefinitions. It is recalled that Polchinski's equation can be cast as a heat equation, which provides intuition and computational techniques for what follows. The analysis of properties of exact solutions to flow equations includes a proof that the spectrum of the anomalous dimension at critical fixed-points is quantized.Two alternative methods for computing the β-function in λφ 4 theory are considered. For one of these it is found that all explicit dependence on the non-universal differences between a family of ERGs cancels out, exactly. The Wilson-Fisher fixed-point is rediscovered in a rather novel way.The discussion of nonperturbative approximation schemes focuses on the derivative expansion, and includes a refinement of the arguments that, at the lowest order in this approximation, a function can be constructed which decreases monotonically along the flow.A new perspective is provided on the relationship between the renormalizability of the Wilsonian effective action and of correlation functions, following which the construction of manifestly gauge invariant ERGs is sketched, and some new insights are given. Drawing these strands together suggests a new approach to quantum field theory. * O.J.Rosten@Sussex.ac.uk 1 CONTENTS

We further develop an algorithmic and diagrammatic computational framework for very general exact renormalization groups, where the embedded regularisation scheme, parametrised by a general cutoff function and infinitely many higher point vertices, is left unspecified. Calculations proceed iteratively, by integrating by parts with respect to the effective cutoff, thus introducing effective propagators, and differentials of vertices that can be expanded using the flow equations; many cancellations occur on using the fact that the effective propagator is the inverse of the classical Wilsonian two-point vertex. We demonstrate the power of these methods by computing the beta function up to two loops in massless four dimensional scalar field theory, obtaining the expected universal coefficients, independent of the details of the regularisation scheme.

The manifestly gauge invariant exact renormalisation group provides a framework for performing continuum computations in SU (N ) Yang-Mills theory, without fixing the gauge. We use this formalism to compute the two-loop β function in a manifestly gauge invariant way, and without specifying the details of the regularisation scheme.

We take the manifestly gauge invariant exact renormalisation group previously used to compute the one-loop β function in SU (N ) Yang-Mills without gauge fixing, and generalise it so that it can be renormalised straightforwardly at any loop order. The diagrammatic computational method is developed to cope with general group theory structures, and new methods are introduced to increase its power, so that much more can be done simply by manipulating diagrams. The new methods allow the standard two-loop β function coefficient for SU (N ) Yang-Mills to be computed, for the first time without fixing the gauge or specifying the details of the regularisation scheme.

We uncover a method of calculation that proceeds at every step without fixing the gauge or specifying details of the regularisation scheme. Results are obtained by iterated use of integration by parts and gauge invariance identities. Calculations can be performed almost entirely diagrammatically. The method is formulated within the framework of an exact renormalisation group for QED. We demonstrate the technique with a calculation of the one-loop beta function, achieving a manifestly universal result, and without gauge fixing.