An analytic solution of the Boltzmann equation in the presence of self-generated magnetic fields in astrophysical plasmas

Through relating a self-generated magnetic field to the regular motion of free electrons that is responsible for the magnetic field generation in astrophysical plasmas, we solve the Boltzmann kinetic equation in the presence of the self-generated magnetic fields to obtain a steady-state, collisional invariant analytic solution of the equation.Comment: 4 pages, no figure, in REVTeX, accepted for publication in Phys. lett.

Differential Form of the Collision Integral for a Relativistic Plasma

The differential formulation of the Landau-Fokker-Planck collision integral is developed for the case of relativistic electromagnetic interactions.Comment: Plain TeX, 5 page

A quantum kinetic equation for Fermi-systems including three-body correlations

A single-time quantum transport equation, which includes effects beyond the quasiparticle approximation, is derived for Fermi-systems in the framework of non-equilibrium real-time Green's functions theory. Ternary correlations are incorporated in the kinetic description via a cluster expansion for the self-energies (e.g., the transport vertex and the width) truncated at the level of three-body scattering amplitudes. A finite temperature/density formulation of the three-body problem is given. Corresponding three-body equations reduce to the well-known Faddeev equations in the vacuum limit. In equilibrium the equation of state contains virial corrections proportional to the third quantum virial coefficient.Comment: 25 pages, Revtex, 2 figures. Final version to be published in Annals of Physics (NY), with minor change

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability and internal waves in quantum plasmas

Influence of quantum effects on the internal waves and the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in plasma is investigated. It is shown that quantum pressure always stabilizes the RT instability. The problem is solved both in the limit of short-wavelength perturbations and exactly for density profiles with layers of exponential stratification. In the case of stable stratification, quantum pressure modifies the dispersion relation of the inertial waves. Because of the quantum effects, the internal waves may propagate in the transverse direction, which was impossible in the classical case. A specific form of pure quantum internal waves is obtained, which do not require any external gravitational field.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Kinetic Theory of Radiation in Nonequilibrium Relativistic Plasmas

Many-particle QED is applied to kinetic theory of radiative processes in many- component plasmas with relativistic electrons and nonrelativistic heavy particles. Within the framework of nonequilibrium Green's function technique, transport and mass-shell equations for fluctuations of the electromagnetic field are obtained. We show that the transverse field correlation functions can be decomposed into sharply peaked (non-Lorentzian) parts that describe resonant (propagating) photons and off-shell parts corresponding to virtual photons in plasmas. Analogous decomposi- tions are found for the longitudinal field correlation functions and the correlation functions of relativistic electrons. As a novel result a kinetic equation for the reso- nant photons with a finite spectral width is derived. The off-shell parts of the particle and field correlation functions are shown to be essential to calculate the local ra- diating power in relativistic plasmas and recover the results of vacuum QED. The influence of plasma effects and collisional broadening of the relativistic quasiparticle spectral function on radiative processes is discussed.Comment: 63 pages, 11 figure

Transport Theory of Massless Fields

Using the Schwinger-Keldysh technique we discuss how to derive the transport equations for the system of massless quantum fields. We analyse the scalar field models with quartic and cubic interaction terms. In the $\phi^4$ model the massive quasiparticles appear due to the self-interaction of massless bare fields. Therefore, the derivation of the transport equations strongly resembles that one of the massive fields, but the subset of diagrams which provide the quasiparticle mass has to be resummed. The kinetic equation for the finite width quasiparticles is found, where, except the mean-field and collision terms, there are terms which are absent in the standard Boltzmann equation. The structure of these terms is discussed. In the massless $\phi^3$ model the massive quasiparticles do not emerge and presumably there is no transport theory corresponding to this model. It is not surprising since the $\phi^3$ model is anyhow ill defined.Comment: 32 pages, no macro

In-medium relativistic kinetic theory and nucleon-meson systems

Within the $\sigma-\omega$ model of coupled nucleon-meson systems, a generalized relativistic Lenard--Balescu--equation is presented resulting from a relativistic random phase approximation (RRPA). This provides a systematic derivation of relativistic transport equations in the frame of nonequilibrium Green's function technique including medium effects as well as flucuation effects. It contains all possible processes due to one meson exchange and special attention is kept to the off--shell character of the particles. As a new feature of many particle effects, processes are possible which can be interpreted as particle creation and annihilation due to in-medium one meson exchange. In-medium cross sections are obtained from the generalized derivation of collision integrals, which possess complete crossing symmetries.Comment: See nucl-th/9310032 for revised version which the authors incompetently resubmitted rather than correctly replacing thi

Nonequilibrium Quantum-Field Dynamics and Off-Shell Transport for ϕ4\phi^4-theory in 2+1 dimensions

We solve the Kadanoff-Baym equations for nonequilibrium initial configurations of the $\phi^4$-theory in 2+1 dimensions and compare to explicit solutions of generalized transport equations for the same theory. The latter transport equations are derived from the Kadanoff-Baym equation in a first order gradient expansion in phase space and explicitly retain the off-shell dynamics as inherent in the time-dependent spectral functions. The solutions of these equations compare very well with the exact solutions of the full Kadanoff-Baym equations with respect to the occupation numbers of the individual modes, the spectral evolution as well as the chemical equilibration process. Furthermore, the proper equilibrium off-shell distribution is reached for large times contrary to the quasiparticle Boltzmann limit. We additionally present a direct comparison of the solution of the generalized transport equations in the Kadanoff-Baym and Botermans-Malfliet form; both solutions are found to agree very well with each other.Comment: 43 pages, LaTex, including 15 postscript figures, submitted to Nucl. Phys.