44,231 research outputs found

    Towards Rigorous Derivation of Quantum Kinetic Equations

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    We develop a rigorous formalism for the description of the evolution of states of quantum many-particle systems in terms of a one-particle density operator. For initial states which are specified in terms of a one-particle density operator the equivalence of the description of the evolution of quantum many-particle states by the Cauchy problem of the quantum BBGKY hierarchy and by the Cauchy problem of the generalized quantum kinetic equation together with a sequence of explicitly defined functionals of a solution of stated kinetic equation is established in the space of trace class operators. The links of the specific quantum kinetic equations with the generalized quantum kinetic equation are discussed.Comment: 25 page

    Backward Clusters, Hierarchy and Wild Sums for a Hard Sphere System in a Low-Density Regime

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    We study the statistics of backward clusters in a gas of hard spheres at low density. A backward cluster is defined as the group of particles involved directly or indirectly in the backwards-in-time dynamics of a given tagged sphere. We derive upper and lower bounds on the average size of clusters by using the theory of the homogeneous Boltzmann equation combined with suitable hierarchical expansions. These representations are known in the easier context of Maxwellian molecules (Wild sums). We test our results with a numerical experiment based on molecular dynamics simulations

    Onsager's missing steps retraced

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    Onsager's paper on phase transition and phase coexistence in anisotropic colloidal systems is a landmark in the theory of lyotropic liquid crystals. However, an uncompromising scrutiny of Onsager's original derivation reveals that it would be rigorously valid only for ludicrous values of the system's number density (of the order of the reciprocal of the number of particles) Based on Penrose's tree identity and an appropriate variant of the mean-field approach for purely repulsive, hard-core interactions, our theory shows that Onsager's theory is indeed valid for a reasonable range of densities

    Continuous-time average-preserving opinion dynamics with opinion-dependent communications

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    We study a simple continuous-time multi-agent system related to Krause's model of opinion dynamics: each agent holds a real value, and this value is continuously attracted by every other value differing from it by less than 1, with an intensity proportional to the difference. We prove convergence to a set of clusters, with the agents in each cluster sharing a common value, and provide a lower bound on the distance between clusters at a stable equilibrium, under a suitable notion of multi-agent system stability. To better understand the behavior of the system for a large number of agents, we introduce a variant involving a continuum of agents. We prove, under some conditions, the existence of a solution to the system dynamics, convergence to clusters, and a non-trivial lower bound on the distance between clusters. Finally, we establish that the continuum model accurately represents the asymptotic behavior of a system with a finite but large number of agents.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures, 11 tex files and 2 eps file
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