Bose-Einstein Condensation in Relativistic Field Theories Far from Equilibrium

Jürgen Berges and Dénes Sexty
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 161601 – Published 17 April 2012

Abstract

The formation of Bose condensates far from equilibrium can play an important role in our understanding of collision experiments of heavy nuclei or for the evolution of the early Universe. In the relativistic quantum world particle number changing processes can counteract Bose condensation, and there is a considerable debate about the relevance of this phenomenon in this context. We show that the involved question of Bose condensation from initial overpopulation can be answered for the example of scalar field theories. Condensate formation occurs as a consequence of an inverse particle cascade with a universal power-law spectrum. This particle transport towards low momenta is part of a dual cascade, in which energy is also transferred by weak wave turbulence towards higher momenta. To highlight the importance of number changing processes for the subsequent decay of the condensate, we also compare to nonrelativistic theories with exact number conservation. We discuss the relevance of these results for non-Abelian gauge theories.

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  • Received 3 January 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.161601

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Jürgen Berges and Dénes Sexty

  • Universität Heidelberg, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Philosophenweg 16, 69120 Heidelberg, Germanyand ExtreMe Matter Institute (EMMI), GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Planckstraße 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany

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Vol. 108, Iss. 16 — 20 April 2012

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