Boundary-Layer Theory, Strong-Coupling Series, and Large-Order Behavior

The introduction of a lattice converts a singular boundary-layer problem in the continuum into a regular perturbation problem. However, the continuum limit of the discrete problem is extremely nontrivial and is not completely understood. This paper examines two singular boundary-layer problems taken from mathematical physics, the instanton problem and the Blasius equation, and in each case examines two strategies, Padé resummation and variational perturbation theory, to recover the solution to the continuum problem from the solution to the associated discrete problem. Both resummation procedures produce good and interesting results for the two cases, but the results still deviate from the exact solutions. To understand the discrepancy a comprehensive large-order behavior analysis of the strong-coupling lattice expansions for each of the two problems is done.