905 research outputs found
Perturbative nonequilibrium dynamics of phase transitions in an expanding universe
A complete set of Feynman rules is derived, which permits a perturbative
description of the nonequilibrium dynamics of a symmetry-breaking phase
transition in theory in an expanding universe. In contrast to a
naive expansion in powers of the coupling constant, this approximation scheme
provides for (a) a description of the nonequilibrium state in terms of its own
finite-width quasiparticle excitations, thus correctly incorporating
dissipative effects in low-order calculations, and (b) the emergence from a
symmetric initial state of a final state exhibiting the properties of
spontaneous symmetry breaking, while maintaining the constraint . Earlier work on dissipative perturbation theory and spontaneous symmetry
breaking in Minkowski spacetime is reviewed. The central problem addressed is
the construction of a perturbative approximation scheme which treats the
initial symmetric state in terms of the field , while the state that
emerges at later times is treated in terms of a field , linearly related
to . The connection between early and late times involves an infinite
sequence of composite propagators. Explicit one-loop calculations are given of
the gap equations that determine quasiparticle masses and of the equation of
motion for and the renormalization of these equations is
described. The perturbation series needed to describe the symmetric and
broken-symmetry states are not equivalent, and this leads to ambiguities
intrinsic to any perturbative approach. These ambiguities are discussed in
detail and a systematic procedure for matching the two approximations is
described.Comment: 22 pages, using RevTeX. 6 figures. Submitted to Physical Review
Nonequilibrium perturbation theory for complex scalar fields
Real-time perturbation theory is formulated for complex scalar fields away
from thermal equilibrium in such a way that dissipative effects arising from
the absorptive parts of loop diagrams are approximately resummed into the
unperturbed propagators. Low order calculations of physical quantities then
involve quasiparticle occupation numbers which evolve with the changing state
of the field system, in contrast to standard perturbation theory, where these
occupation numbers are frozen at their initial values. The evolution equation
of the occupation numbers can be cast approximately in the form of a Boltzmann
equation. Particular attention is given to the effects of a non-zero chemical
potential, and it is found that the thermal masses and decay widths of
quasiparticle modes are different for particles and antiparticles.Comment: 15 pages using RevTeX; 2 figures in 1 Postscript file; Submitted to
Phys. Rev.
Crossover from the pair contact process with diffusion to directed percolation
Crossover behaviors from the pair contact process with diffusion (PCPD) and
the driven PCPD (DPCPD) to the directed percolation (DP) are studied in one
dimension by introducing a single particle annihilation/branching dynamics. The
crossover exponents are estimated numerically as for the PCPD and for the DPCPD.
Nontriviality of the PCPD crossover exponent strongly supports non-DP nature of
the PCPD critical scaling, which is further evidenced by the anomalous critical
amplitude scaling near the PCPD point. In addition, we find that the DPCPD
crossover is consistent with the mean field prediction of the tricritical DP
class as expected
Crossover from the parity-conserving pair contact process with diffusion to other universality classes
The pair contact process with diffusion (PCPD) with modulo 2 conservation
(\pcpdt) [, ] is studied in one dimension, focused on the
crossover to other well established universality classes: the directed Ising
(DI) and the directed percolation (DP). First, we show that the \pcpdt shares
the critical behaviors with the PCPD, both with and without directional bias.
Second, the crossover from the \pcpdt to the DI is studied by including a
parity-conserving single-particle process (). We find the crossover
exponent , which is argued to be identical to that of the
PCPD-to-DP crossover by adding . This suggests that the PCPD
universality class has a well defined fixed point distinct from the DP. Third,
we study the crossover from a hybrid-type reaction-diffusion process belonging
to the DP [, ] to the DI by adding . We find
for the DP-to-DI crossover. The inequality of and
further supports the non-DP nature of the PCPD scaling. Finally, we
introduce a symmetry-breaking field in the dual spin language to study the
crossover from the \pcpdt to the DP. We find , which is
associated with a new independent route from the PCPD to the DP.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Nontrivial critical crossover between directed percolation models: Effect of infinitely many absorbing states
At non-equilibrium phase transitions into absorbing (trapped) states, it is
well known that the directed percolation (DP) critical scaling is shared by two
classes of models with a single (S) absorbing state and with infinitely many
(IM) absorbing states. We study the crossover behavior in one dimension,
arising from a considerable reduction of the number of absorbing states
(typically from the IM-type to the S-type DP models), by following two
different (excitatory or inhibitory) routes which make the auxiliary field
density abruptly jump at the crossover. Along the excitatory route, the system
becomes overly activated even for an infinitesimal perturbation and its
crossover becomes discontinuous. Along the inhibitory route, we find continuous
crossover with the universal crossover exponent , which is
argued to be equal to , the relaxation time exponent of the DP
universality class on a general footing. This conjecture is also confirmed in
the case of the directed Ising (parity-conserving) class. Finally, we discuss
the effect of diffusion to the IM-type models and suggest an argument why
diffusive models with some hybrid-type reactions should belong to the DP class.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
Nonequilibrium perturbation theory for spin-1/2 fields
A partial resummation of perturbation theory is described for field theories
containing spin-1/2 particles in states that may be far from thermal
equilibrium. This allows the nonequilibrium state to be characterized in terms
of quasiparticles that approximate its true elementary excitations. In
particular, the quasiparticles have dispersion relations that differ from those
of free particles, finite thermal widths and occupation numbers which, in
contrast to those of standard perturbation theory evolve with the changing
nonequilibrium environment. A description of this kind is essential for
estimating the evolution of the system over extended periods of time. In
contrast to the corresponding description of scalar particles, the structure of
nonequilibrium fermion propagators exhibits features which have no counterpart
in the equilibrium theory.Comment: 16 pages; no figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
Dissipation in equations of motion of scalar fields
The methods of non-equilibrium quantum field theory are used to investigate
the possibility of representing dissipation in the equation of motion for the
expectation value of a scalar field by a friction term, such as is commonly
included in phenomenological inflaton equations of motion. A sequence of
approximations is exhibited which reduces the non-equilibrium theory to a set
of local evolution equations. However, the adiabatic solution to these
evolution equations which is needed to obtain a local equation of motion for
the expectation value is not well defined; nor, therefore, is the friction
coefficient. Thus, a non-equilibrium treatment is essential, even for a system
that remains close to thermal equilibrium, and the formalism developed here
provides one means of achieving this numerically.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
Numerical investigation of friction in inflaton equations of motion
The equation of motion for the expectation value of a scalar quantum field
does not have the local form that is commonly assumed in studies of
inflationary cosmology. We have recently argued that the true, temporally
non-local equation of motion does not possess a time-derivative expansion and
that the conversion of inflaton energy into particles is not, in principle,
described by the friction term estimated from linear response theory. Here, we
use numerical methods to investigate whether this obstacle to deriving a local
equation of motion is purely formal, or of some quantitative importance. Using
a simple scalar-field model, we find that, although the non-equilibrium
evolution can exhibit significant damping, this damping is not well described
by the local equation of motion obtained from linear response theory. It is
possible that linear response theory does not apply to the situation we study
only because thermalization turns out to be slow, but we argue that that the
large discrepancies we observe indicate a failure of the local approximation at
a more fundamental level.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Scaling in high-temperature superconductors
A Hartree approximation is used to study the interplay of two kinds of
scaling which arise in high-temperature superconductors, namely critical-point
scaling and that due to the confinement of electron pairs to their lowest
Landau level in the presence of an applied magnetic field. In the neighbourhood
of the zero-field critical point, thermodynamic functions scale with the
scaling variable , which differs from the variable
suggested by the gaussian approximation.
Lowest-Landau-level (LLL) scaling occurs in a region of high field surrounding
the upper critical field line but not in the vicinity of the zero-field
transition. For YBaCuO in particular, a field of at least 10 T is needed to
observe LLL scaling. These results are consistent with a range of recent
experimental measurements of the magnetization, transport properties and,
especially, the specific heat of high- materials.Comment: 22 pages + 1 figure appended as postscript fil
An Analytic Equation of State for Ising-like Models
Using an Environmentally Friendly Renormalization we derive, from an
underlying field theory representation, a formal expression for the equation of
state, , that exhibits all desired asymptotic and analyticity
properties in the three limits , and . The only
necessary inputs are the Wilson functions , and
, associated with a renormalization of the transverse vertex
functions. These Wilson functions exhibit a crossover between the Wilson-Fisher
fixed point and the fixed point that controls the coexistence curve.
Restricting to the case N=1, we derive a one-loop equation of state for naturally parameterized by a ratio of non-linear scaling fields. For
we show that a non-parameterized analytic form can be deduced. Various
asymptotic amplitudes are calculated directly from the equation of state in all
three asymptotic limits of interest and comparison made with known results. By
positing a scaling form for the equation of state inspired by the one-loop
result, but adjusted to fit the known values of the critical exponents, we
obtain better agreement with known asymptotic amplitudes.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
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