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arXiv:cond-mat/0003101 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

Derivation of Boltzmann equation in closed-time-path formalism

Jun Koide

Published Mar 23, 2000• 6 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A systematic derivation of the Boltzmann equation is presented in the framework of closed-time-path formalism. Introducing a new type of probe, the expectation value of number operator is calculated as a functional of source. Then solving for the source by inverting the relation, the equation of motion for number is obtained when the source is removed, and it turns out to be the Boltzmann equation. The inversion formula is used in the course of derivation.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/33/13/102

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A systematic derivation of the Boltzmann equation is presented in the framework of closed-time-path formalism. Introducing a new type of probe, the expectation value of number operator is calculated as a functional of source. Then solving for the source by inverting the relation, the equation of motion for number is obtained when the source is removed, and it turns out to be the Boltzmann equation. The inversion formula is used in the course of derivation.
A systematic derivation of the quantum kinetic equation is presented in the framework of a closed-time-path formalism. Introducing a probe, the expectation value of the number operator is calculated as a functional of the probing source. Then, solving for the source by inverting the relation, the removal of the source leads to the quantum kinetic equation as the equation of motion for the number, which gives a generalization of the Boltzmann equation including memory. The inversion formula is used in the course of the derivation. The calculation is presented up to third order in interaction, and the effect of initial correlations is also considered.
The inversion method to derive the quantum kinetic equation is extended to the case of an inhomogeneous system. Within the closed-time-path formalism, the source is introduced to probe the (Fourier transform of the) Wigner distribution function and the equation of motion for the Wigner function is derived perturbatively by the inversion formulae. The equation of motion has the form of the generalized Boltzmann equation, which is non-local in space and time. For the obtained kinetic equation, the local conservation laws of number, energy and momentum are confirmed.
Within the closed-time-path formalism, a perturbative method is presented, which reduces the microscopic field theory to the quantum kinetic theory. In order to make this reduction, the expectation value of a physical quantity must be calculated under the condition that the Wigner distribution function is fixed, because it is the independent dynamical variable in the quantum kinetic theory. It is shown that when a nonequilibrium Green function in the form of the generalized Kadanoff-Baym ansatz is utilized, this condition appears as a cancellation of a certain part of contributions in the diagrammatic expression of the expectation value. Together with the quantum kinetic equation, which can be derived in the closed-time-path formalism, this method provides a basis for the kinetic-theoretical description.
The renormalization scheme in nonequilibrium thermal quantum field theories is reexamined. Instead of the self-energy diagonalization scheme, we propose to diagonalize Green’s function at equal time. This eliminates the problem of on-shell definition related to time-dependent energies and spatially inhomogeneous situations, and yields a Boltzmann equation that contains memory effect. The new diagonalization scheme and the derivation of the Boltzmann equation from it can be applied to any thermal situation. It allows the treatment of a nonequilibrium problem beyond perturbational calculations in a self-consistent manner. The results are applicable to both thermo field dynamics and the closed time path formalism.
The aim of this paper is twofold: to probe the statistical mechanical properties of interacting quantum fields, and to provide a field theoretical justification for a stochastic source term in the Boltzmann equation. We start with the formulation of quantum field theory in terms of the set of Schwinger-Dyson equations for the correlation functions, which we describe by a closed-time-path master $(n=\ensuremath{\infty}\mathrm{PI})$ effective action. When the hierarchy is simply truncated to a certain order, one obtains the usual closed system of correlation functions up to that order, and from the nPIn\mathrm{PI}nPI effective action, a set of time-reversal invariant equations of motion. (This is the Dyson equation, the quantum field theoretical parallel of the collisionless Boltzmann equation.) But when the effect of the higher order correlation functions is included through a causal factorization condition (such as the molecular chaos assumption in Boltzmann's theory) called slaving, the dynamics of the lower order correlations shows dissipative features, as familiar in the usual (dissipative yet noiseless) Boltzmann equation, the field-theoretical version of which being the dissipative Dyson equations. We show that a fluctuation-dissipation relation should exist for such effectively open systems, and use this fact to show that a stochastic term, which explicitly introduces quantum fluctuations in the lower order correlation functions, necessarily accompanies the dissipative term. This leads to a stochastic Dyson equation, which is the quantum field theoretic parallel of the classical Boltzmann-Langevin equation, encompassing both the dissipative and stochastic dynamics of correlation functions.
To introduce the formalism of the functional integral in quantum mechanics, this chapter starts from the definition of the temporal evolution operator. It is important to emphasize that in the classical limit is not only the classic trajectory that have the grater contribution, but all the paths close to this also contribute. The chapter shows how integral formulation is perfectly consistent with Schrödinger's time-dependent differential equation. It retrieves this equation from definition of transition amplitude as a path integral. The chapter discusses functional derivative generalized to the case of the ordinary functional derivative. A very useful tool to solve problems related to functional integrals is the Wick rotation or Euclidean rotation. In quantum mechanics there are few problems we can solve exactly, and very often, when possible, we use perturbation theory to find an approximate solution. The chapter follows this approach with formalism of functional integration and construct a perturbation theory from which can be obtained a physical interpretation.