vix.ing · top · new · best · stats · spec

Derivation of the Euler equations from many-body quantum mechanics

2002/10/31 by Bruno Nachtergaele, Horng-Tzer Yau
Physics and Astronomy · Mathematics · #math-ph #math.AP #math.MP #msc:82C10 #msc:82C21 #msc:82C40

paper · pdf

published as Proceedings of the ICM, Beijing 2002, vol. 3, 467--476

arxiv created 2003/06/20 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30

Abstract

The Heisenberg dynamics of the energy, momentum, and particle densities for fermions with short-range pair interactions is shown to converge to the compressible Euler equations in the hydrodynamic limit. The pressure function is given by the standard formula from quantum statistical mechanics with the two-body potential under consideration. Our derivation is based on a quantum version of the entropy method and a suitable quantum virial theorem. No intermediate description, such as a Boltzmann equation or semi-classical approximation, is used in our proof. We require some technical conditions on the dynamics, which can be considered as interesting open problems in their own right.

Related