1997/03/14 by Herbert Nachbagauer, Nachbagauer, Herbert
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-th/9703105
23 pages, 12 figures
arxiv created 1997/03/14 · openalex publication_date 1997/03/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We reformulate time evolution of systems in mixed states in terms of the classical observables of correlators using the Weyl correspondence rule. The resulting equation of motion for the Wigner functional of the density matrix is found to be of the Liouville type. To illustrate the methods developed, we explicitly consider a scalar theory with quartic self-interaction and derive the short time behaviour with the non-interacting thermal density matrix as initial condition. In the scalar case, the complete correlator hierarchy is studied and restrictions are derived for spatially homogeneous initial conditions and systems with unbroken symmetry.