Scaling laws at the critical point

Abstract

There are two independent critical exponents that describe the behavior of systems near their critical point. However, at the critical point only the exponent $\eta$, which describes the decay of the correlation function, is usually discussed. We emphasize that there is a second independent exponent $\eta'$ that describes the decay of the fourth-order correlation function. The exponent $\eta'$ is related to the exponents determining the behavior of thermodynamic functions near criticality via a fluctuation-response equation for the specific heat. We also discuss a scaling law for $\eta'$.Comment: Revised version, 1 added figure, 3 pages, 1 tabl