Non-equilibrium Liouville and Wigner equations: moment methods and long-time approximations

We treat the non-equilibrium evolution of an open one-particle statistical system, subject to a potential and to an external "heat bath" (hb) with negligible dissipation. For the classical equilibrium Boltzmann distribution, W_c,eq, a non-equilibrium three-term hierarchy for moments fulfil...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Fernández Álvarez-Estrada, Ramón
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/34968
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/34968
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:53
Quantum brownian-motion
Statistical-mechanics
Phase-space
Dynamics
Irreversibility
Oscillator
Operators
Lionville
Systems
Field
Física (Física)
22 Física
Descripción
Sumario:We treat the non-equilibrium evolution of an open one-particle statistical system, subject to a potential and to an external "heat bath" (hb) with negligible dissipation. For the classical equilibrium Boltzmann distribution, W_c,eq, a non-equilibrium three-term hierarchy for moments fulfills Hermiticity, which allows one to justify an approximate long-time thermalization. That gives partial dynamical support to Boltzmann's W_c,eq, out of the set of classical stationary distributions, W_c,st, also investigated here, for which neither Hermiticity nor that thermalization hold, in general. For closed classical many-particle systems without hb (by using W_c,eq,), the long-time approximate thermalization for three-term hierarchies is justified and yields an approximate Lyapunov function and an arrow of time. The largest part of the work treats an open quantum one-particle system through the non-equilibrium Wigner function, W. W_eq for a repulsive finite square well is reported. W's (< 0 in various cases) are assumed to be quasi-definite functionals regarding their dependences on momentum (q). That yields orthogonal polynomials, H_Q,n (q), for W_eq (and for stationary W_st), non-equilibrium moments, W-n, of W and hierarchies. For the first excited state of the harmonic oscillator, its stationary W_st is a quasi-definite functional, and the orthogonal polynomials and three-term hierarchy are studied. In general, the non-equilibrium quantum hierarchies (associated with W_eq) for the W_n's are not three-term ones. As an illustration, we outline a non-equilibrium four-term hierarchy and its solution in terms of generalized operator continued fractions. Such structures also allow one to formulate long-time approximations, but make it more difficult to justify thermalization. For large thermal and de Broglie wavelengths, the dominant W_eq and a non-equilibrium equation for W are reported: the non-equilibrium hierarchy could plausibly be a three-term one and possibly not far from Gaussian, and thermalization could possibly be justified.