Classical fields near thermal equilibrium

Carsten Greiner and Berndt Müller
Phys. Rev. D 55, 1026 – Published 15 January 1997
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Abstract

We discuss the classical limit for the long-distance (“soft”) modes of a quantum field when the hard modes of the field are in thermal equilibrium. We address the question of the correct semiclassical dynamics when a momentum cutoff |p|<~kcT is introduced. Higher order contributions lead to a stochastic interpretation for the effective action in analogy with quantum Brownian motion, resulting in dissipation and decoherence for the evolution of the soft modes. Particular emphasis is put on the understanding of dissipation. Our discussion focuses mostly on scalar fields, but we make some remarks on the extension to gauge theories.

  • Received 13 May 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.55.1026

©1997 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Carsten Greiner

  • Institut für Theoretische Physik, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, D-35392 Giessen, Germany

Berndt Müller

  • Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0305

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Issue

Vol. 55, Iss. 2 — 15 January 1997

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