Kinematics of electrons near a Van Hove singularity

A two-dimensional electronic system, where the Fermi surface is close to a Van Hove singularity, shows a variety of weak coupling instabilities. It is a convenient model to study the interplay between antiferromagnetism and anisotropic superconductivity. We present a detailed analysis of the kinematics of electron scattering in this model. The similarities and differences between a standard renormalization group approach and previous work based on parquet summations of log(2) divergences are analyzed, with emphasis on the underlying physical processes. General properties of the phase diagram are discussed.