Commensurate-incommensurate transitions in two dimensions-a low-temperature expansion

The commensurate-incommensurate transition of a two-dimensional classical sine-Gordon system is studied by the equivalent one-dimensional quantum system. The latter is expanded around its classical limit, corresponding to a low-temperature expansion of the two-dimensional system. It is found that both mass and wavefunction renormalisation are required. The critical exponent for incommensurability is beta =0, but if the momentum cut-off is kept finite one obtains beta =1. The classical limit is a singular point and the results are reliable when they are not too close to the transition.