Transport Theory beyond Binary Collisions

Abstract

Using the Schwinger-Keldysh technique, we derive the transport equations for a system of quantum scalar fields. We first discuss the general structure of the equations and then their collision terms. Taking into account up to three-loop diagrams in ϕ^3 model and up to four-loop diagrams in ϕ^4 model, we obtain the transport equations which include the contributions of multi-particle collisions and particle production processes, in addition to mean-field effects and binary interactions.

30 pages, 21 figures, minor changes, to appear in Phys. Rev. D