pith. sign in

Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Scalar Fields in a Thermal Bath

2 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

2 Pith papers citing it
abstract

We study the approach to equilibrium for a scalar field which is coupled to a large thermal bath. Our analysis of the initial value problem is based on Kadanoff-Baym equations which are shown to be equivalent to a stochastic Langevin equation. The interaction with the thermal bath generates a temperature-dependent spectral density, either through decay and inverse decay processes or via Landau damping. In equilibrium, energy density and pressure are determined by the Bose-Einstein distribution function evaluated at a complex quasi-particle pole. The time evolution of the statistical propagator is compared with solutions of the Boltzmann equations for particles as well as quasi-particles. The dependence on initial conditions and the range of validity of the Boltzmann approximation are determined.

citation-role summary

background 1

citation-polarity summary

fields

hep-ph 2

years

2026 2

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 2

roles

background 1

polarities

background 1

clear filters

representative citing papers

citing papers explorer

Showing 2 of 2 citing papers after filters.