The problem of many-particle correlations in different approaches to the quantum kinetic theory is treated on the basis of Zubarev's method of the nonequilibrium statistical operator.It is shown that long-lived correlations can be incorporated through boundary conditions for reduced manyparticle density matrices and the nonequilibrium real-time Green functions.Within the method of Green functions the boundary conditions are conveniently formulated in terms of the "mixed" Green functions defined on a directed contour with the real-time evolution governed by the Hamiltonian of the system and the "imaginary-time" evolution governed by the entropy operator.The perturbation expansion of the mixed Green function is obtained in terms of the interaction part of the Hamiltonian and the correlation part of the entropy operator.
The problem of many-particle correlations in different approaches to the quantum kinetic theory is treated on the basis of Zubarev's method of the nonequilibrium statistical operator.It is shown that long-lived correlations can be incorporated through boundary conditions for reduced manyparticle density matrices and the nonequilibrium real-time Green functions.Within the method of Green functions the boundary conditions are conveniently formulated in terms of the "mixed" Green functions defined on a directed contour with the real-time evolution governed by the Hamiltonian of the system and the "imaginary-time" evolution governed by the entropy operator.The perturbation expansion of the mixed Green function is obtained in terms of the interaction part of the Hamiltonian and the correlation part of the entropy operator.
In this article, we present a concise and self-contained introduction to nonequilibrium statistical mechanics with quantum field theory by considering an ensemble of interacting identical bosons or fermions as an example. Readers are assumed to be familiar with the Matsubara formalism of equilibrium statistical mechanics such as Feynman diagrams, the proper self-energy, and Dyson's equation. The aims are threefold: (i) to explain the fundamentals of nonequilibrium quantum field theory as simple as possible on the basis of the knowledge of the equilibrium counterpart; (ii) to elucidate the hierarchy in describing nonequilibrium systems from Dyson's equation on the Keldysh contour to the Navier-Stokes equation in fluid mechanics via quantum transport equations and the Boltzmann equation; (iii) to derive an expression of nonequilibrium entropy that evolves with time. In stage (i), we introduce nonequilibrium Green's function and the self-energy uniquely on the round-trip Keldysh contour, thereby avoiding possible confusions that may arise from defining multiple Green's functions at the very beginning. We try to present the Feynman rules for the perturbation expansion as simple as possible. In particular, we focus on the self-consistent perturbation expansion with the Luttinger-Ward thermodynamic functional, i.e., Baym's Phi-derivable approximation, which has a crucial property for nonequilibrium systems of obeying various conservation laws automatically. We also show how the two-particle correlations can be calculated within the Phi-derivable approximation, i.e., an issue of how to handle the "Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvons (BBGKY) hierarchy".
Introduction Mathematically, given a linear differential operator L x , one encounters the solution to the inhomogeneous differential equation Here ρ ( x ) is a given source function. For a given boundary condition, we assume a solution to exist. The solution can be reduced to a simpler problem. Let G ( x, y ) is the Green's function. This is a function of x with y a parameter. Take G ( x, y ) to satisfy the same boundary conditions as φ ( x ). Then since An example of L x is, of course, the Schrödinger operator We take ρ ( x ) = V ( x ) ψ ( x , t ), ψ ( x , t ) being the wave function and V ( x ) the potential operator. We are interested in Green's functions taken over from the techniques of quantum field theory (Schweber, 1961; Lifshitz and Petaevskii, 1981). We will concern ourselves particularly with one- and two-time Green's functions, since our principal interest is to show a connection to the calculations of linear response theory (Chapter 15) as well as to quantum kinetic equations. Then we wish to compare the methods with those described in Chapter 4. In this we will follow the work of L. P. Kadanoff and G. Baym (1962) and of L. V. Keldysh (1965) and also Zubarev (1974). We will not discuss equilibrium statistical mechanics utilizing Green's function techniques for many-body problems. The literature is exhaustive (see Abrikosov et al. , 1963; Fetter and Walecka, 1971). A good general introduction is the book by G. D. Mahan (2000). One- and two-time quantum Green's functions and their properties Let us introduce the creation operator ψ † ( r, t ) and annihilation operator ψ ( r, t ) of the second quantization formalism (see Schweber, 1961). They have the equal time commutation rules for Bose and Fermi particles: The Hamiltonian operator for the particles is and the number density of particles at r t is the operator Note that r = ( r 1 … r N ) for (1, 2, 3, …, N ) and V (| r − r ′|) is the pair potential depending, as in Chapter 4, on the scalar distance between the particles.
We present a Green's-function formalism generalized to treat arbitrary time-dependent systems initially prepared with an arbitrary density matrix. On the basis of a simultaneous expansion of the usual real-time development operator and the density matrix, we define a Green's function ordered along an extended contour. In this way we are able to treat real-time many-particle Green's functions and initial correlations on the same footing. Both can be decomposed by Wick's theorem. Thus we may utilize familiar diagrammatic analysis for evaluating the Green's function, and finally arrive at a generalized Dyson's equation. The Green's function can be represented by a (3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}3) matrix, which includes the Green's functions used in the Feynman, Matsubara, and Keldysh theories, if the corresponding statistical average is taken. From a matrix representation of Dyson's equation, a basic set of five coupled equations is derived, which explicitly shows the corrections to the Keldysh theory due to an arbitrary initial many-particle density matrix.
The memory kernel of the kinetic equation for the time correlation function of a quantum fluid is determined both in third order of the interaction strength and in the low-density approximation. The results are obtained with the help of a diagram representation for the kernel. The connexion with the kinetic theory for classical fluids is established. The properties of a nonequilibrium fluid may be studied with the help of the kinetic theory of time correlation functions. These functions are determined by specifying the memory kernel in the kinetic equation that governs their time evolution. For classical fluids a suitable formalism that permits the approximate evaluation of this kernel has been developed several years ago (for a review see ref. 1). The generalization of these methods to the case of quantum fluids was considered in a few recent papers2f3). In particular, the memory kernel was established for a normal quantum fluid in the weakcoupling approximation. In the long-time and large-distance limit this kernel reduces to that of the linearized Uehling-Uhlenbeck equation4) in which the scattering amplitude is replaced by its first Born approximation. The purpose of the present paper is to extend the available results by employing higher-order perturbation theory for the evaluation of the memory kernel. An essential ingredient of the treatment will consist in the introduction of four-point diagrams that represent the various contributions to the kernel. With the use of this diagram representation we shall derive the memory kernel in third order of the interaction strength. In this order the kernel still has the same general form as the weak-coupling kernel, but with shifted energies and a generalized transition probability. Its relation to the kernel of the linearized Bogoliubov-Gurov’) equation will be established. An alternative approach to the approximate evaluation of the memory kernel makes use of an expansion in the density. The low-density limit of the
The method of the nonequilibrium statistical operator developed by D. N. Zubarev is employed to analyze and derive generalized transport and kinetic equations. The degrees of freedom in solids can often be represented as a few interacting subsystems (electrons, spins, phonons, nuclear spins, etc.). Perturbation of one subsystem may produce a nonequilibrium state which is then relaxed to an equilibrium state due to the interaction between particles or with a thermal bath. The generalized kinetic equations were derived for a system weakly coupled to a thermal bath to elucidate the nature of transport and relaxation processes. It was shown that the "collision term" had the same functional form as for the generalized kinetic equations for the system with small interactions among particles. The applicability of the general formalism to physically relevant situations is investigated. It is shown that some known generalized kinetic equations (e.g. kinetic equation for magnons, Peierls equation for phonons) naturally emerges within the NSO formalism. The relaxation of a small dynamic subsystem in contact with a thermal bath is considered on the basis of the derived equations. The Schrödinger-type equation for the average amplitude describing the energy shift and damping of a particle in a thermal bath and the coupled kinetic equation describing the dynamic and statistical aspects of the motion are derived and analyzed. The equations derived can help in the understanding of the origin of irreversible behavior in quantum phenomena.