Beyond the Boltzmann equation for weakly coupled quantum fields

2025/03/13 by Xu-Yao Hu, Hu, Xu-Yao, Vladimir Rosenhaus +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.09932

openalex publication_date 2025/03/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We study the kinetic theory of a weakly interacting quantum field. Assuming a state that is close to homogeneous and stationary, we derive a closed kinetic equation for the rate of change of the occupation numbers, perturbatively in the coupling. For a dilute gas, this reproduces the quantum Boltzmann equation, which only accounts for two-to-two scattering processes. Our expression goes beyond this, with terms accounting for multi-particle scattering processes, which are higher order in the density.

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