2008/03/03 by J. Berges, Jürgen Berges, Alexander Rothkopf +2 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #cond-mat.other #hep-ph #hep-th #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.041603
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.101:041603,2008 · 4 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2008/03/03 · openalex publication_date 2008/07/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Strongly correlated systems far from equilibrium can exhibit scaling solutions with a dynamically generated weak coupling. We show this by investigating isolated systems described by relativistic quantum field theories for initial conditions leading to nonequilibrium instabilities, such as parametric resonance or spinodal decomposition. The nonthermal fixed points prevent fast thermalization if classical-statistical fluctuations dominate over quantum fluctuations. We comment on the possible significance of these results for the heating of the early Universe after inflation and the question of fast thermalization in heavy-ion collision experiments.