Nonequilibrium perturbation theory for complex scalar fields
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS29JT (England)
Real-time perturbation theory is formulated for complex scalar fields away from thermal equilibrium in such a way that dissipative effects arising from the absorptive parts of loop diagrams are approximately resummed into the unperturbed propagators. Low order calculations of physical quantities then involve quasiparticle occupation numbers which evolve with the changing state of the field system, in contrast with standard perturbation theory, where these occupation numbers are frozen at their initial values. The evolution equation of the occupation numbers can be cast approximately in the form of a Boltzmann equation. Particular attention is given to the effects of a nonzero chemical potential, and it is found that the thermal masses and decay widths of quasiparticle modes are different for particles and antiparticles. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
- OSTI ID:
- 467485
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review, D, Vol. 55, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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