Long-time correlation tails in crystals

Nonequilibrium thermodynamics and the Onsager hypothesis are utilized to demonstrate that long-time correlation “tails”, decaying as t^−3/2, should be expected in the velocity autocorrelation function of crystals. In the simplest situation, this behavior is due to the non-propagating (Rayleigh) mode. In the general case, it is argued that “diffusive” modes decaying in wavevector space as exp (−tK²), where is a constant, should lead to the same behavior.