Wigner-Moyal description of free variable mass Klein-Gordon fields

A system of coupled kinetic transport equations for the Wigner distributions of a free variable mass Klein-Gordon field is derived. This set of equations is formally equivalent to the full wave equation for electromagnetic waves in nonlinear dispersive media, thus allowing for the description of broadband radiation-matter interactions and the associated instabilities. The standard results for the classical wave action are recovered in the short wavelength limit of the generalized Wigner-Moyal formalism for the wave equation.