Variational description of statistical field theories using Daubechies' wavelets

We investigate the description of statistical field theories using Daubechies’ orthonormal compact wavelets on a lattice. A simple variational approach is used to extend mean field theory and make predictions for the fluctuation strengths of wavelet coefficients and thus for the correlation function. The results are compared to Monte Carlo simulations. We find that wavelets provide a reasonable description of critical phenomena with only a small number of variational parameters. This lets us hope for an implementation of the renormalization group in wavelet space.