Transport theory for quantum crystals

A correlation function approach is developed to treat non-equilibrium phenomena of quantum crystals at low frequency and long wavelength within the renormalized harmonic approximation (RHA). The derivation of the transport equations is carried out by studying the hierarchy of equations of motion for the retarded Green's functions of a pure, nonprimitive, nonionic, anharmonic lattice. Using a factorization technique to take into account the most important terms due to the particle fluctuations and the leading contributions to the hydrodynamic singularities of the phonon self-energy, we find a differential equation for the displacement field and a generalized transport equation for the phonon gas. The microscopic RHA expressions for the local temperature, the local heat density and the energy current are derived; the quasiparticle parameters (elastic constants, generalized Grüneisen parameters, quasiparticle interaction) entering the equations of motion are shown to be consistent with the RHA. In the hydrodynamic regime the general equations are reduced to two coupled differential equations for the lattice deformations and for the local temperature. Then only the displacement-displacement, the displacement-energy density and the energy density-energy density correlation functions show macroscopic fluctuations; for these functions thermodynamical sum-rules are derived.