From the von Neumann Equation to the Quantum Boltzmann Equation II: Identifying the Born Series

In a previous paper [Ca1], the author studied a low density limit in the periodic von Neumann equation with potential, modified by a damping term. The model studied in [Ca1], considered in dimensions d3, is deterministic. It describes the quantum dynamics of an electron in a periodic box (actually on a torus) containing one obstacle, when the electron additionally interacts with, say, an external bath of photons. The periodicity condition may be replaced by a Dirichlet boundary condition as well. In the appropriate low density asymptotics, followed by the limit where the damping vanishes, the author proved in [Ca1] that the above system is described in the limit by a linear, space homogeneous, Boltzmann equation, with a cross-section given as an explicit power series expansion in the potential. The present paper continues the above study in that it identifies the cross-section previously obtained in [Ca1] as the usual Born series of quantum scattering theory, which is the physically expected result. Hence we establish that a von Neumann equation converges, in the appropriate low density scaling, towards a linear Boltzmann equation with cross-section given by the full Born series expansion: we do not restrict ourselves to a weak coupling limit, where only the first term of the Born series would be obtained (Fermi's Golden Rule).     

A Stationary Phase Approach to the Weak Coupling Schrödinger Equation

We study the dynamics of a quantum particle governed by a linear Schrödinger equation with a scaled Gaussian potential. In the weak coupling limit the average dynamics of such a particle can be described by a linear Boltzmann equation. In this work we prove a bound for the rate at which the average dynamics of the quantum particle approach linear Boltzmann equation dynamics. For the so called simple diagrams, we use a stationary phase approach to establish an asymptotic expansion that provides the bound. Our stationary phase approach also provides a simple, formal method for computing the Boltzmann limit. Our work uses and extends results developed by L. Erdös and H.T. Yau.     

Master equation for a quantum particle in a gas

The equation for the quantum motion of a Brownian particle in a gaseous environment is derived by means of S-matrix theory. This quantum version of the linear Boltzmann equation accounts nonperturbatively for the quantum effects of the scattering dynamics and describes decoherence and dissipation in a unified framework. As a completely positive master equation it incorporates both the known equation for an infinitely massive Brownian particle and the classical linear Boltzmann equation as limiting cases.     

Relaxation dynamics of a quantum Brownian particle in an ideal gas

We show how the quantum analog of the Fokker-Planck equation for describing Brownian motion can be obtained as the diffusive limit of the quantum linear Boltzmann equation. The latter describes the quantum dynamics of a tracer particle in a dilute, ideal gas by means of a translation-covariant master equation. We discuss the type of approximations required to obtain the generalized form of the Caldeira-Leggett master equation, along with their physical justification. Microscopic expressions for the diffusion and relaxation coefficients are obtained by analyzing the limiting form of the equation in both the Schr?dinger and the Heisenberg picture.     

Quantum kinetics and thermalization in a particle bath model

We study the dynamics of relaxation and thermalization in an exactly solvable model of a particle interacting with a harmonic oscillator bath. Our goal is to understand the effects of non-Markovian processes on the relaxational dynamics and to compare the exact evolution of the distribution function with approximate Markovian and non-Markovian quantum kinetics. There are two different cases that are studied in detail: (i) a quasiparticle (resonance) when the renormalized frequency of the particle is above the frequency threshold of the bath and (ii) a stable renormalized "particle" state below this threshold. The time evolution of the occupation number for the particle is evaluated exactly using different approaches that yield to complementary insights. The exact solution allows us to investigate the concept of the formation time of a quasiparticle and to study the difference between the relaxation of the distribution of bare particles and that of quasiparticles. For the case of quasiparticles, the exact occupation number asymptotically tends to a statistical equilibrium distribution that differs from a simple Bose-Einstein form as a result of off-shell processes whereas in the stable particle case, the distribution of particles does not thermalize with the bath. We derive a non-Markovian quantum kinetic equation which resums the perturbative series and includes off-shell effects. A Markovian approximation that includes off-shell contributions and the usual Boltzmann equation (energy conserving) are obtained from the quantum kinetic equation in the limit of wide separation of time scales upon different coarse-graining assumptions. The relaxational dynamics predicted by the non-Markovian, Markovian, and Boltzmann approximations are compared to the exact result. The Boltzmann approach is seen to fail in the case of wide resonances and when threshold and renormalization effects are important.     

Nonlinear transport in the Boltzmann limit

Formal expressions for the irreversible fluxes of a simple fluid are obtained as functionals of the thermodynamic forces and local equilibrium time correlation functions. The Boltzmann limit of the correlation functions is shown to yield expressions for the irreversible fluxes equivalent to those obtained from the nonlinear Boltzmann kinetic equation. Specifically, for states near equilibrium, the fluxes may be formally expanded in powers of the thermodynamic gradients and the associated transport coefficients identified as integrals of time correlation functions. It is proved explicitly through nonlinear Burnett order that the time correlation function expressions for these transport coefficients agree with those of the Chapman-Enskog expansion of the nonlinear Boltzmann equation. For states far from equilibrium the local equilibrium time correlation functions are determined in the Boltzmann limit and a similar equivalence to the Boltzmann equation solution is established. Other formal representations of the fluxes are indicated; in particular, a projection operator form and its Boltzmann limit are discussed. As an example, the nonequilibrium correlation functions for steady shear flow are calculated exactly in the Boltzmann limit for Maxwell molecules.Research supported in part by NSF grant PHY 76-21453.     

A Boltzmann equation approach to transport in finite modular quantum systems

We investigate the transport behavior of finite modular quantum systems. Such systems have recently been analyzed by different methods. These approaches indicate diffusive behavior even and especially for finite systems. Inspired by these results we analyze analytically and numerically if and in which sense the dynamics of those systems are in agreement with an appropriate Boltzmann equation. We find that the transport behavior of a certain type of finite modular quantum systems may indeed be described in terms of a Boltzmann equation. However, the applicability of the Boltzmann equation appears to be rather limited to a very specific type of model.     

H theorem and distribution functions in scale-covariant gravitation

A complete formulation of kinetic theory in the scale-covariant gravitation is presented in this paper. Following the usual scheme we find the Boltzmann equation for a colliding gas. From this equation we obtain the H-Theorem and the equilibrium distribution functions for homogeneous and isotropic spaces in the quantum case and in the high dilution limit.     

Quantum corrections for Boltzmann equation

We present the lowest order quantum correction to the semiclassical Boltzmann distribution function, and the equation satisfied by this correction is given. Our equation for the quantum correction is obtained from the conventional quantum Boltzmann equation by explicitly expressing the Planck constant in the gradient approximation, and the quantum Wigner distribution function is expanded in powers of Planck constant, too. The negative quantum correlation in the Wigner distribution function which is just the quantum correction terms is naturally singled out, thus obviating the need for the Husimi’s coarse grain averaging that is usually done to remove the negative quantum part of the Wigner distribution function. We also discuss the classical limit of quantum thermodynamic entropy in the above framework. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10404037) and the Scientific Research Fund of GUCAS (Grant No. 055101BM03)     

Thermal mechanics: A quantum mechanical analogue of nonequilibrium statistical thermodynamics

A formal but not conventional equivalence between stochastic processes in nonequilibrium statistical thermodynamics and Schrödinger dynamics in quantum mechanics is shown. It is found, for each stochastic process described by a stochastic differential equation of Itô type, there exists a Schrödinger-like dynamics in which the absolute square of a wavefunction gives us the same probability distribution as the original stochastic process. In utilizing this equivalence between them, that is, rewriting the stochastic differential equation by an equivalent Schrödinger equation, it is possible to obtain the notion of deterministic limit of the stochastic process as a semi-classical limit of the “Schrödinger” equation. The deterministic limit thus obtained improves the conventional deterministic approximation in the sense of Onsager-Machlup. The present approach is valid for a general class of stochastic equations where local drifts and diffusion coefficients depend on the position. Two concrete examples are given. It should be noticed that the approach in the present form has nothing to do with the conventional one where only a formal similarity between the Fokker-Planck equation and the Schrödinger equation is considered.     

Interaction quench in the Hubbard model

Motivated by recent experiments in ultracold atomic gases that explore the nonequilibrium dynamics of interacting quantum many-body systems, we investigate the opposite limit of Landau's Fermi-liquid paradigm: We study a Hubbard model with a sudden interaction quench, that is, the interaction is switched on at time t=0. Using the flow equation method, we are able to study the real time dynamics for weak interaction U in a systematic expansion and find three clearly separated time regimes: (i) An initial buildup of correlations where the quasiparticles are formed. (ii) An intermediate quasi-steady regime resembling a zero temperature Fermi liquid with a nonequilibrium quasiparticle distribution function. (iii) The long-time limit described by a quantum Boltzmann equation leading to thermalization of the momentum distribution function with a temperature T proportional, variantU.     

A canonical dilation of the Schrödinger equation

In this paper we shall re-visit the well-known Schrödinger equation of quantum mechanics. However, this shall be realized as a marginal dynamics of a more general, underlying stochastic counting process in a complex Minkowski space. One of the interesting things about this formalism is that its derivation has very deep roots in a new understanding of the differential calculus of time. This Minkowski-Hilbert representation of quantum dynamics is called the Belavkin formalism; a beautiful, but not well understood theory of mathematical physics that understands that both deterministic and stochastic dynamics may be formally represented by a counting process in a second-quantized Minkowski space. The Minkowski space arises as a canonical quantization of the clock, and this is derived naturally from the matrix-algebra representation [1, 2] of the Newton-Leibniz differential time increment, dt. And so the unitary dynamics of a quantum object, described by the Schrödinger equation, may be obtained as the expectation of a counting process of object-clock interactions.     

Kinetic Description of a Rayleigh Gas with Annihilation

In this paper, we consider the dynamics of a tagged point particle in a gas of moving hard-spheres that are non-interacting among each other. This model is known as the ideal Rayleigh gas. We add to this model the possibility of annihilation (ideal Rayleigh gas with annihilation), requiring that each obstacle is either annihilating or elastic, which determines whether the tagged particle is elastically reflected or removed from the system. We provide a rigorous derivation of a linear Boltzmann equation with annihilation from this particle model in the Boltzmann–Grad limit. Moreover, we give explicit estimates for the error in the kinetic limit by estimating the contributions of the configurations which prevent the Markovianity. The estimates show that the system can be approximated by the Boltzmann equation on an algebraically long time scale in the scaling parameter.

     

Linear quantum enskog equation II. Inhomogeneous quantum fluids

This is the second part of a work concerned with the quantum-statistical generalization of classical Enskog theory, whereby the first part is extended to spatially inhomogeneous fluids. In particular, working with Liouville operators and using cluster expansions and projection operators, we derive the inhomogeneous linear quantum Enskog equation and express the dynamic structure factor and the nonlocal mobility tensor in terms of the corresponding quantum Enskog collision operator. Thereby static correlations due to excluded volume effects and quantum-statistical correlations due to the fermionic (bosonic) character of the pairwise strongly interacting particles are treated exactly. When static correlations are neglected, this Enskog equation reduces to the inhomogeneous linear quantum Boltzmann equation (containing an exchange-modifiedt-matrix). In the classical limit, the well-known linear revised Enskog theory is recovered for hard spheres.     

There is more to be learned from the Lorentz model

The classical Lorentz model for charged noninteracting point particles in a perpendicular magnetic field is reconsidered in 2D. We show that the standard Boltzmann equation is not valid for this model, even in the Grad limit. We construct a generalized Boltzmann equation which is, and solve the corresponding initial value problem exactly. By an independent calculation, we find the same solution by directly constructing the Green function from the dynamics of the model in the Grad limit. From this solution an expression for the diffusion tensor, valid for arbitrary short-range forces, is derived. For hard disks we calculate the diffusion tensor explicitly. Away from the Grad limit a percolation problem arises. We determine numerically the percolation threshold and the corresponding geometric critical exponents. The numerical evidence strongly suggests that this continuum percolation model is in the universality class of 2D lattice percolation. Although we have explicitly determined a number of limiting properties of the model, several intriguing open problems remain.It is with great pleasure we include this paper in the issue honoring Matthieu Ernst, who not only shares our love for kinetic theory, but who also contributed so much to its modern development.     

The motion of wavelets—An interpretation of the Schrödinger equation

There are stable wavelets which satisfy the Schrödinger equation. The motion of a wavelet is determined by a set of ordinary differential equations. In a certain limit, a wavelet turns out to be the known representation of a classical material point. A de Broglie wave is constructed by superposing similar free wavelets. Conventional energy eigensolutions of the Schrödinger equation can be interpreted as ensembles of wavelets. If the dynamics of wavelets form the quantum mechanical counterpart of Newton's dynamics of particles, then conventional quantum mechanics is the counterpart of Gibbs's mechanics of ensembles. In this way, conventional quantum mechanics is reinterpreted on a deterministic basis. A difficulty of quantum field theory is predictable from this point of view.     

Derivation of non-Markovian transport equations for trapped cold atoms in nonequilibrium thermal field theory

The non-Markovian transport equations for the systems of cold Bose atoms confined by a external potential both without and with a Bose-Einstein condensate are derived in the framework of nonequilibrium thermal field theory (Thermo Field Dynamics). Our key elements are an explicit particle representation and a self-consistent renormalization condition which are essential in thermal field theory. The non-Markovian transport equation for the non-condensed system, derived at the two-loop level, is reduced in the Markovian limit to the ordinary quantum Boltzmann equation derived in the other methods. For the condensed system, we derive a new transport equation with an additional collision term which becomes important in the Landau instability.