The Hartree ensemble approximation revisited: The "symmetric phase"

The Hartree ensemble approximation is studied in the ``symmetric phase'' of 1+1 dimensional lambda phi^4 theory. In comparison with the ``broken phase'' studied previously, it is shown that the dynamical evolution of observables such as the particle distribution, energy exchange and auto-correlation functions, is substantially slower. Approximate thermalization is found only for relatively large energy densities and couplings.Comment: 17 pages RevTeX, 16 figures, 3 tables, uses amsmath and feynmp. Extended some sections, reordered Sec.IV, added 3 refs, numerical typo corrected, published versio

Ward identity and electrical conductivity in hot QED

We study the Ward identity for the effective photon-electron vertex summing the ladder diagrams contributing to the electrical conductivity in hot QED at leading logarithmic order. It is shown that the Ward identity requires the inclusion of a new diagram in the integral equation for the vertex that has not been considered before. The real part of this diagram is subleading and therefore the final expressions for the electrical conductivity at leading logarithmic order are not affected.Comment: 25 pages with 5 eps figures, discussion in section 3 improved; to appear in JHE

Transport coefficients and quantum fields

Various aspects of transport coefficients in quantum field theory are reviewed. We describe recent progress in the calculation of transport coefficients in hot gauge theories using Kubo formulas, paying attention to the fulfillment of Ward identities. We comment on why the color conductivity in hot QCD is much simpler to compute than the electrical conductivity. The nonperturbative extraction of transport coefficients from lattice QCD calculations is briefly discussed.Comment: 15 pages with 9 eps figures. Combined invited talk by G.A. and poster by J.M.M.R. presented at Strong and Electroweak Matter (SEWM 2002), Heidelberg, Germany, 2-5 Oct 200

Transport coefficients and the 2PI effective action in the large N limit

We discuss the computation of transport coefficients in large N_f QCD and the O(N) model for massive particles. The calculation is organized using the 1/N expansion of the 2PI effective action to next-to-leading order. For the gauge theory, we verify gauge fixing independence and consistency with the Ward identity. In the gauge theory, we find a nontrivial dependence on the fermion mass.Comment: 10 pages, based on presentations at Strong and Electroweak Matter (SEWM04), Helsinki, Finland, June 16-19 2004, and the Workshop on QCD in Extreme Environments, Argonne National Laboratory, USA, June 29-July 3 200

Continuum and lattice meson spectral functions at nonzero momentum and high temperature

We analyse discretization effects in the calculation of high-temperature meson spectral functions at nonzero momentum and fermion mass on the lattice. We do so by comparing continuum and lattice spectral functions in the infinite temperature limit. Complete analytical results for the spectral densities in the continuum are presented, along with simple expressions for spectral functions obtained with Wilson and staggered fermions on anisotropic lattices. We comment on the use of local and point split currents.Comment: 20 pages, 7 eps figure

Transport coefficients from the lattice?

The prospects of extracting transport coefficients from euclidean lattice simulations are discussed. Some general comments on the reconstruction of spectral functions using the Maximal Entropy Method are given as well.Comment: Lattice2002(nonzerot), 3 pages with 2 eps figure

Transport properties of microstructured ultrathin films of La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 on SrTiO3

We have investigated the electrical transport properties of 8 nm thick La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 films, sputter-deposited on SrTiO3 (STO), and etched into 5 micrometer-wide bridges by Ar-ion etching. We find that even slight overetching of the film leads to conductance of the STO substrate, and asymmetric and non-linear current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. However, a brief oxygen plasma etch allows full recovery of the insulating character of the substrate. The I-V characteristics of the bridges are then fully linear over a large range of current densities. We find colossal magnetoresistance properties typical for strained LCMO on STO but no signature of non-linear effects (so-called electroresistance) connected to electronic inhomogeneites. In the metallic state below 150 K, the highest current densities lead to heating effects and non-linear I-V characteristics.Comment: 3 pages, 5 figure

Inhomogeneous superconductivity induced in a weak ferromagnet

Under certain conditions, the order parameter induced by a superconductor (S) in a ferromagnet (F) can be inhomogeneous and oscillating, which results e.g. in the so-called pi-coupling in S/F/S junctions. In principle, the inhomogeneous state can be induced at T_c as function of the F-layer thickness d_F in S/F bilayers and multilayers, which should result in a dip-like characteristic of T_c(d_F). We show the results of measurements on the S/F system Nb/Cu_{1-x}Ni_x, for Ni-concentrations in the range x = 0.5-0.7, where such effects might be expected. We find that the critical thickness for the occurrence of superconductivity is still relatively high, even for these weak ferromagnets. The resulting dip then is intrinsically shallow and difficult to observe, which explains the lack of a clear signature in the T_c(d_F) data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. To be publishedin Physica C (proceedings of the Second Euroconference on Vortex Matter in Superconductors, Crete, 2001

Nonequilibrium time evolution of the spectral function in quantum field theory

Transport or kinetic equations are often derived assuming a quasi-particle (on-shell) representation of the spectral function. We investigate this assumption using a three-loop approximation of the 2PI effective action in real time, without a gradient expansion or on-shell approximation. For a scalar field in 1+1 dimensions the nonlinear evolution, including the integration over memory kernels, can be solved numerically. We find that a spectral function approximately described by a nonzero width emerges dynamically. During the nonequilibrium time evolution the Wigner transformed spectral function is slowly varying, even in presence of strong qualitative changes in the effective particle distribution. These results may be used to make further analytical progress towards a quantum Boltzmann equation including off-shell effects and a nonzero width.Comment: 20 pages with 6 eps figures, explanation and references added; to appear in Phys.Rev.