1995/05/08 by Jochen Rau, J. Rau, Berndt Müller +1 · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Algorithm #Classical mechanics #Computer science #Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry) #Entropy (arrow of time) #Markov process #Physics #Projection (relational algebra) #Quantum #Quantum mechanics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Statistical physics #Theoretical physics #cond-mat #hep-ph #hep-th #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/0370-1573(95)00077-1
published as Phys.Rept.272:1-59,1996 · Review article, 78 pages, uuencoded compressed PostScript file
arxiv created 1995/05/08 · openalex publication_date 1996/07/01 · arxiv updated 2010/09/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The transition from reversible microdynamics to irreversible transport can be studied very efficiently with the help of the so-called projection method. We give a concise introduction to that method, illustrate its power by using it to analyze the well-known rate and quantum Boltzmann equations, and present, as a new application, the derivation of a source term accounting for the spontaneous creation of electron-positron pairs in strong fields. Thereby we emphasize the fundamental importance of time scales: only if the various time scales exhibited by the dynamics are widely disparate, can the evolution of the slower degrees of freedom be described by a conventional Markovian transport equation; otherwise, one must account for finite memory effects. We show how the projection method can be employed to determine these time scales, and how --if necessary-- it allows one to include memory effects in a straightforward manner. Finally, there is an appendix in which we discuss the concepts of entropy and macroscopic irreversibility.