Calculation of the anomalous exponents in the rapid-change model of passive scalar advection to order varepsilon³

The field theoretic renormalization group and operator product expansion are applied to the model of a passive scalar advected by the Gaussian velocity field with zero mean and correlation function $\propto\delta(t-t')/k^{d+\eps}$. Inertial-range anomalous exponents, identified with the critical dimensions of various scalar and tensor composite operators constructed of the scalar gradients, are calculated within the $\varepsilon$ expansion to order $\varepsilon^{3}$ (three-loop approximation), including the exponents in anisotropic sectors. The main goal of the paper is to give the complete derivation of this third-order result, and to present and explain in detail the corresponding calculational techniques. The character and convergence properties of the $\varepsilon$ expansion are discussed; the improved ``inverse'' $\varepsilon$ expansion is proposed and the comparison with the existing nonperturbative results is given.