Abstract The improved Landau equation governing nonequilibrium behaviour of quantum gases of moderate density is shown to yield the exact second virial coefficient B(T). After simplifying the collisional operator the linearized stress tensor is evaluated to give the lowest order virial correction to the shear viscosity.
We compute second-order transport coefficients of the dilute Fermi gas at unitarity. The calculation is based on kinetic theory and the Boltzmann equation at second order in the Knudsen expansion. The second-order transport coefficients describe the shear stress relaxation time, nonlinear terms in the strain-stress relation, and nonlinear couplings between vorticity and strain. An exact calculation in the dilute limit gives ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{R}=\ensuremath{\eta}/P$, where ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{R}$ is the shear stress relaxation time, $\ensuremath{\eta}$ is the shear viscosity, and P is pressure. This relation is identical to the result obtained using the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook approximation to the collision term, but other transport coefficients are sensitive to the exact collision integral.
Renormalized expressions for the transport coefficients of a normal quantum fluid are derived from a nonlocal kinetic equation. As was shown in the classical case by Forster and Martin and by R\'esibois, the expressions for the transport coefficients separate naturally into "kinetic" and "direct" parts. The kinetic terms are proportional to matrix elements of the inverse of the kinetic kernel, and have the same general structure as the "bare" transport coefficients obtained from a local Boltzmann equation. The direct terms are proportional to matrix elements of the kernel itself, and have no counterpart in calculations based on a local kinetic equation, as in the kinetic theory of gases. We evaluate the transport coefficients using the weak-coupling approximation to the kernel derived in a previous paper. Results are given, first, for both Bose and Fermi fluids at arbitrary temperature, and then for the Fermi fluid near T=0, where complete solutions are obtained. It is found that the direct parts of the shear viscosity and thermal conductivity are of higher order in T than the kinetic parts, and are therefore negligible at very low temperature. The kinetic parts have the same leading temperature dependence as the predictions of the Landau theory. For the bulk viscosity, however, the direct and kinetic contributions begin at the same order (T2) in the temperature.
Two distinct approaches have been followed to produce an approximate expression for the third virial coefficient of a quantum system in terms of the pertinent two-particle quantities (standard T matrix elements and bound state eigenvalues and eigenstates): One approach is based on the T approximation for the self-energy in the theory of temperature Green functions, and the other uses the diagrams which represent the various terms in the multiple-scattering expansion of the three-particle T operator. It is shown that the result given by the former method is reproduced exactly by the contribution of a small number of selected diagrams. The Green function method requires the evaluation of the Kadanoff and Baym generalized T matrix to one order in the activity higher than its familiar low-density limit. The common result can be written entirely in terms of the lowest order self-energy and should give a reasonable approximation to the third virial coefficient for systems with short-range forces.
A dense interacting Bose or Fermi gas is considered. Within the Kadanoff-Baym real-time Green-function technique a generalized kinetic equation is derived in the nonequilibrium ladder approximation. As a Markovian limit the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck equation is recovered. The relevance of retardation effects in the kinetic equation of dense systems is shown. It turns out that the stationary solution of the generalized kinetic equation reproduces the second virial coefficient of the equation of state, including the Beth-Uhlenbeck quantum corrections. We establish a generalized kinetic equation describing correlation effects in a consistent approach to nonequilibrium for Bose and Fermi systems. In this way we give a generalization of the Beth-Uhlenbeck formula that applies to nonequilibrium and to finite systems. The derivation makes use of the time dependent T-matrix equation, which establishes a generalization of the Bethe-Goldstone equation. The correlated parts of the density and energy, which can be interpreted as virial corrections, are thermodynamically consistent. In this way global energy conservation is fulfilled.