Far-from-equilibrium quantum many-body dynamics

The theory of real-time quantum many-body dynamics as put forward in Ref. [arXiv:0710.4627] is evaluated in detail. The formulation is based on a generating functional of correlation functions where the Keldysh contour is closed at a given time. Extending the Keldysh contour from this time to a later time leads to a dynamic flow of the generating functional. This flow describes the dynamics of the system and has an explicit causal structure. In the present work it is evaluated within a vertex expansion of the effective action leading to time evolution equations for Green functions. These equations are applicable for strongly interacting systems as well as for studying the late-time behaviour of nonequilibrium time evolution. For the specific case of a bosonic N-component phi^4 theory with contact interactions an s-channel truncation is identified to yield equations identical to those derived from the 2PI effective action in next-to-leading order of a 1/N expansion. The presented approach allows to directly obtain non-perturbative dynamic equations beyond the widely used 2PI approximations.