arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D. T. Son.
We derive a set of equations describing the real time dynamics of modes with spatial momentum of order g^2 T in a high temperature gauge theory, where g is the coupling constant and T is the temperature. This dynamics is stochastic in nature. Important implications for baryon number violation at high temperature and for the physics at the electroweak phase transition, are discussed.
We consider a simple model for the Universe reheating, which consists of a single self--interacting scalar field in Minkowskian space--time. Making use of the existence of an additional small parameter proportional to the amplitude of the initial spatially homogeneous field oscillations, we show that the behavior of the field can be found reliably. We describe the evolution of the system from the homogeneous oscillations to the moment when thermalization is completed. We compare our results with the Hartree--Fock approximation and argue that some properties found for this model may be the common features of realistic theories.
We establish the equivalence between the quantum evolution of spatially homogeneous oscillations of a scalar field and that of an analogous classical system with certain random initial condition. We argue that this observation can be used for numerical simulation of the Universe in the preheating epoch. We also explicitly demonstrate that the phenomenon of parametric resonance that leads to preheating is simultaneously an effective mechanism for generating quantum decoherence of the Universe.
We propose a semiclassical approach to calculate multiparticle cross sections in scalar theories, which have been strongly argued to have the exponential form $\exp(λ^{-1}F(λn,ε))$ in the regime $λ\to0$, $λn$, $ε=$ fixed, where $λ$ is the scalar coupling, $n$ is the number of produced particles, and $ε$ is the kinetic energy per final particle. The formalism is based on singular solutions to the field equation, which satisfy certain boundary and extremizing conditions. At low multiplicities and small kinetic energies per final particle we reproduce in the framework of this formalism the main perturbative results. We also obtain a lower bound on the tree--level cross section in the ultra--relativistic regime.
We consider the features of multiparticle tree cross sections in scalar theories in the framework of a semiclassical approach. These cross sections at large multiplicities have exponential form, and the properties of the exponent in different regimes are discussed.
It has been shown recently that the amplitude of the creation of $n$ real scalar particles by one virtual boson near $n$--particle threshold exhibits exponential behavior at $n\sim1/λ$. We extend this result to the processes of multiparticle production at threshold by two virtual bosons. We find that both the tree--level amplitude and leading--$n$ loop corrections have the same exponential behavior, with the common exponent for $1\to n$ and $2\to n$ processes, for various kinematics. This result strongly indicates that the exponent for multiparticle amplitudes is independent of the initial state and that there may exist a semiclassical approach to the study of multiparticle production.
It is argued that the amplitudes of the production of $n$ soft scalar particles by one or a few energetic ones in theories like $λϕ^4$ has the exponential form, $A_n\propto\sqrt{n!}\exp[{1\overλ}F(λn,ε)]$, in the regime $λ\to 0$, $λn={fixed}$, $ε={fixed}$, where $ε$ is the typical kinetic energy of outgoing particles. Existing results support this conjecture. Several new analytical and numerical results in favor of the exponential behavior of multiparticle amplitudes are presented.
Multiparticle production in (2+1) dimensions is investigated. We show that in a small region around the threshold the perturbation theory becomes unapplicable due to infrared divergencies in a class of Feynman graphs with rescattering in final state. We develop a technique based on renormalization group for summing up leading logarithms and apply it to the $ϕ^4$ models with and without symmetry breaking and to the $O(N)$ $ϕ^4$ theory.
We consider classical Minkowskian solutions to the field equation in the (1+1) dimensional scalar model with the exponential interaction that describe the unsuppressed false vacuum decay induced by $n$ initial particles. We find that there is a critical value of $n$ below which there are no such solutions, i.e., the vacuum decay is always suppressed. For the number of initial particles larger than this value the vacuum decay is unsuppressed at high enough energies.
Instanton-like transitions (``shadow processes'') are considered in (1+1) dimensional models with one scalar field whose potential is a quadratic well with a cliff. The corresponding classical boundary value problem is solved, and the semiclassical transition probabilities are found in a rather wide range of energies and the numbers of initial particles.
Two-parameter sets of solutions to the classical field equations in the massless $ϕ^4$ model and SU(2) gauge theory are found, each solution presumably describing a multi-particle instanton-like transition at high energy. In the limit of small number of initial particles, the probability of the transition is suppressed by $\exp(-2S_0)$, where $S_0$ is the instanton action.
A solution to the classical field equations in the massless (1+1)-dimensional O(3) sigma model is found, which describes a multi-particle instanton-like transition at high energy. In the limit of small number of initial particles, the number of final particles is shown to be also small, and the probability of the transition is suppressed by $\exp(-2S_0)$, where $S_0$ is the instanton action. This solution, however, does not correspond to the maximum transition probability among all states with given number of incoming particles and energy. Unless the limit $g^2 n_{initial}\to0$ is exponentially sensitive to the structure of the initial state, our results imply that well above the sphaleron energy, the instanton-induced cross section becomes again suppressed by the instanton exponent, and the number of final paricles is again small.