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Thermal Quantum Field Theory and Perturbative Non-Equilibrium Dynamics

  • Book
  • © 2014

Overview

Authors:
  1. Peter Millington

    1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

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  • Nominated as an Outstanding Ph.D. thesis by the University of Manchester, UK
  • Provides a clear overview of prerequisite material from classical thermodynamics, classical and quantum statistical mechanics and equilibrium thermal field theory
  • Includes extensive chapter-by-chapter bibliographies of further reading

Part of the book series: Springer Theses (Springer Theses)

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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Peter Millington
    Pages 1-9

  3. Equilibrium Mechanics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Introduction to Part I

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 13-14

    3. Classical Prerequisites

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 15-40

    4. Quantum Statistical Mechanics

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 41-61

    5. Correlation Functions

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 63-71

    6. Imaginary Time Formalism

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 73-79

    7. Scalar Field Theory

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 81-91

  4. Non-Equilibrium Mechanics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-93
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    2. Introduction to Part II

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 95-96

    3. The CTP Formalism

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 97-109

    4. Non-Homogeneous Backgrounds

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 111-127

    5. The Thermodynamic Equilibrium Limit

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 129-140

    6. Absence of Pinch Singularities

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 141-145

    7. Number Density of Particles

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 147-150

    8. Master Time Evolution Equations

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 151-155

    9. Non-Homogeneous Loop Integrals

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 157-170

    10. Thermalization of a Heavy Scalar

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 171-193

    11. Conclusions

      • Peter Millington
      Pages 195-197
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Keywords

About this book

The author develops a new perturbative formalism of non-equilibrium thermal quantum field theory for non-homogeneous backgrounds. As a result of this formulation, the author is able to show how so-called pinch singularities can be removed, without resorting to ad hoc prescriptions, or effective resummations of absorptive effects. Thus, the author arrives at a diagrammatic approach to non-equilibrium field theory, built from modified Feynman rules that are manifestly time-dependent from tree level. This new formulation provides an alternative framework in which to derive master time evolution equations for physically meaningful particle number densities, which are valid to all orders in perturbation theory and to all orders in gradient expansion. Once truncated in a loop-wise sense, these evolution equations capture non-equilibrium dynamics on all time-scales, systematically describing energy-violating processes and the non-Markovian evolution of memory effects

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Peter Millington

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