In physics, an infrared fixed point is a set of coupling constants, or other parameters that evolve from initial values at very high energies (short distance), to fixed stable values, usually predictable, at low energies (large distance). This usually involves the use of the renormalization group, a mathematical apparatus for theoretically evolving physical systems from one scale to another.
Conversely, if the length-scale decreases and the physical parameters approach fixed values, then we have ultraviolet fixed points. The fixed points are generally independent of the initial values of the parameters over a large range of the initial values. This is known as "universality".
Read more about Infrared Fixed Point: Statistical Physics, Particle Physics
Famous quotes containing the words fixed and/or point:
“Marriage is the clue to human life, but there is no marriage apart from the wheeling sun and the nodding earth, from the straying of the planets and the magnificence of the fixed stars.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“No doubt, to a man of sense, travel offers advantages. As many languages as he has, as many friends, as many arts and trades, so many times is he a man. A foreign country is a point of comparison, wherefrom to judge his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)