2003/03/31 by G. Holzwarth
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Adiabatic process #Classical mechanics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Dissipation #Field (mathematics) #Hadron #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Lattice (music) #Mathematics #Momentum (technical analysis) #Phase space #Phase transition #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Rapidity #Statistical physics #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.68.016008
published as Phys.Rev. D68 (2003) 016008 · 18 pages, 7 figures. Two references added. New subsection III.E added. Final version accepted for publication in PRD
arxiv created 2003/05/20 · openalex publication_date 2003/07/28 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The field dynamics in a rapidly expanding system is investigated by transforming from space-time to the rapidity--proper-time frame. The proper-time dependence of different contributions to the total energy is established. For systems characterized by a finite momentum cutoff, a freeze-out time can be defined after which the field propagation in rapidity space ends and the system decays into decoupled solitons, antisolitons, and local vacuum fluctuations. Numerical simulations of field evolutions on a lattice for the (1+1)-dimensional \ensuremathΦ4 model illustrate the general results and show that the freeze-out time and average multiplicities of kinks (plus antikinks) produced in this ``phase transition'' can be obtained from simple averages over the initial ensemble of field configurations. An extension to explicitly include additional dissipation is discussed. The validity of an adiabatic approximation for the case of an overdamped system is investigated. The (3+1)-dimensional generalization may serve as model for baryon-antibaryon production after heavy-ion collisions.