Transport equation for a gas of bosons

T. R. Kirkpatrick, J. R. Dorfman

Erich D. Gust, L. E. Reichl

Expressions for the bulk viscosity, shear viscosity, and thermal conductivity of a quantum degenerate Bose gas above the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation are derived using the Uehling-Uhlenbeck kinetic equation. For contact potentials and hard sphere interactions, the eigenvalues (relaxation rates) of the Uehling-Uhlenbeck collision operator have an upper cutoff. This cutoff requires summation over all discrete eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the collision operator when computing transport coefficients. We numerically compute the shear viscosity and thermal conductivity for any boson gas that interacts via a contact potential. We find that the bulk viscosity of the degenerate boson gas remains identically zero, as it is for the classical gas.

Hazime Mori, John Ross

J. R. Dorfman, Henk van Beijeren, T. R. Kirkpatrick

At low temperatures the De Broglie wavelength of the gas particles becomes on the order of their average separation, and the effects of their indistinguishability become important. In the absence of a phase transition in the gas, the quantum mechanical Wigner distribution function for a dilute gas of fermions or bosons satisfies the Uehling-Uhlenbeck equation. This equation satisfies an H- theorem with equilibrium solutions being ideal boson or ideal fermion distributions. Navier-Stokes equations can be derived by standard methods. A low temperature gas of weakly interacting bosons undergoes a Bose-Einstein condensation with a macroscopically occupied ground state. A different approach is required to describe the non-equilibrium processes in such a situation. A kinetic equation can be derived for the Bogoliubov excitations in the gas at very low temperatures. The associated hydrodynamic equations are the Landau-Khaltnikov, two fluid equations, and explicit expressions are obtained for the six associated transport coefficients.

G. F. Bertsch

A. Ron