The second-order approach of entropy gradient maximization, applied to the problem of a quantum bosonic system, results in an integro-differential dynamic equation. Its local approximation provides the conventional diffusion and the wave equation
We discuss differential-- versus integral--equation based methods describing out--of thermal equilibrium systems and emphasize the importance of a well defined reduction to statistical observables. Applying the projection operator approach, we investigate on the time evolution of expectation values of linear and quadratic polynomials in position and momentum for a statistical anharmonic oscillator with quartic potential. Based on the exact integro-differential equations of motion, we study the first and naive second order approximation which breaks down at secular time-scales. A method is proposed to improve the expansion by a non--perturbative resummation of all quadratic operator correlators consistent with energy conservation for all times. Motion cannot be described by an effective Hamiltonian local in time reflecting non-unitarity of the dissipative entropy generating evolution. We numerically integrate the consistently improved equations of motion for large times. We relate entropy to the uncertainty product, both being expressible in terms of the observables under consideration.
We use the assumption that the potential for the A-boson system can be written as a sum of pairwise acting forces to decompose the wave function into Faddeev components that fulfill a Faddeev type equation. Expanding these components in terms of potential harmonic (PH) polynomials and projecting on the potential basis for a specific pair of particles results in a two-variable integro-differential equations suitable for A-boson bound-state studies. The solution of the equation requires the evaluation of Jacobi polynomials ${P}_{K}^{\ensuremath{\alpha},\ensuremath{\beta}}(x)$ and of the weight function W(z) which give severe numerical problems for very large A. However, using appropriate limits for $A\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ we obtain a variant equation which depends only on the input two-body interaction, and the kernel in the integral part has a simple analytic form. This equation can be readily applied to a variety of bosonic systems such as microclusters of noble gasses. We employ it to obtain results for $A\ensuremath{\in}(10\ensuremath{-}100)$ 87Rb atoms interacting via interatomic interactions and confined by an externally applied trapping potential Vtrap(r). Our results are in excellent agreement with those previously obtained using the potential harmonic expansion method (PHEM) and the diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) method.