arXiv subjects

H. J. de Vega

Publications and source records attributed to H. J. de Vega.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2001

Out of Equilibrium Non-perturbative Quantum Field Dynamics in Homogeneous External Fields

The quantum dynamics of the symmetry broken lambda (Phi^2)^2 scalar field theory in the presence of an homogeneous external field is investigated in the large N limit. We choose as initial state the ground state for a constant external field J .The sign of the external field is suddenly flipped from J to - J at a given time and the subsequent quantum dynamics calculated. Spinodal instabilities and parametric resonances produce large quantum fluctuations in the field components transverse to the external field. This allows the order parameter to turn around the maximum of the potential for intermediate times. Subsequently, the order parameter starts to oscillate near the global minimum for external field - J, entering a novel quasi-periodic regime.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

Dynamical renormalization group approach to the Altarelli-Parisi-Lipatov equations

The Altarelli-Parisi-Lipatov equations for the parton distribution functions are rederived using the dynamical renormalization group approach to quantum kinetics. This method systematically treats the ln Q^2 corrections that arises in perturbation theory as a renormalization of the parton distribution function and unambiguously indicates that the strong coupling must be allowed to run with the scale in the evolution kernel. To leading logarithmic accuracy the evolution equation is Markovian and the logarithmic divergences in the perturbative expansion are identified with the secular divergences (terms that grow in time) that emerge in a perturbative treatment of the kinetic equations in nonequilibrium systems. The resummation of the leading logarithms by the Altarelli-Parisi-Lipatov equation is thus similar to the resummation of the leading secular terms by the Boltzmann kinetic equation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

Interaction of Reggeized Gluons in the Baxter-Sklyanin Representation

We investigate the Baxter equation for the Heisenberg spin model corresponding to a generalized BFKL equation describing composite states of n Reggeized gluons in the multi-color limit of QCD. The Sklyanin approach is used to find an unitary transformation from the impact parameter representation to the representation in which the wave function factorizes as a product of Baxter functions and a pseudo-vacuum state. We show that the solution of the Baxter equation is a meromorphic function with poles (lambda - i r)^{-(n-1)} (r= 0, 1,...) and that the intercept for the composite Reggeon states is expressed through the behavior of the Baxter function around the pole at lambda = i . The absence of pole singularities in the two complex dimensional lambda-plane for the bilinear combination of holomorphic and anti-holomorphic Baxter functions leads to the quantization of the integrals of motion because the holomorphic energy should be the same for all independent Baxter functions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

Out of Equilibrium Dynamics of Supersymmetry at High Energy Density

We investigate the out of equilibrium dynamics of global chiral supersymmetry at finite energy density. We concentrate on two specific models. The first is the massive Wess-Zumino model which we study in a selfconsistent one-loop approximation. We find that for energy densities above a certain threshold, the fields are driven dynamically to a point in field space at which the fermionic component of the superfield is massless. The state, however is found to be unstable, indicating a breakdown of the one-loop approximation. To investigate further, we consider an O(N) massive chiral model which is solved exactly in the large $N$ limit. For sufficiently high energy densities, we find that for late times the fields reach a nonperturbative minimum of the effective potential degenerate with the perturbative minimum. This minimum is a true attractor for O(N) invariant states at high energy densities, and this provides a mechanism for determining which of the otherwise degenerate vacua is chosen by the dynamics. The final state for large energy density is a cloud of massless particles (both bosons and fermions) around this new nonperturbative supersymmetric minimum. By introducing boson masses which softly break the supersymmetry, we demonstrate a see-saw mechanism for generating small fermion masses. We discuss some of the cosmological implications of our results.

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arXiv2001

Dynamics of O(N) chiral supersymmetry at finite energy density

We consider an O(N) version of a massive, interacting, chiral supersymmetry model solved exactly in the large N limit. We demonstrate that the system approaches a stable attractor at high energy densities, corresponding to a non-perturbative state for which the relevant field quanta are massless. The state is one of spontaneously broken O(N), which, due to the influence of supersymmetry, does not become restored at high energies. Introducing soft supersymmetry breaking to the Lagrangian results in scalar masses at the soft breaking scale m_s independent of the mass scale of supersymmetry mu, with even smaller masses for the fermions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

The Landau Pole at Finite Temperature

We study the Landau pole in the lambda phi^4 field theory at non-zero and large temperatures. We show that the position of the thermal Landau pole Lambda_L(T) is shifted to higher energies with respect to the zero temperature Landau pole Lambda_L(0). We find for high temperatures T > Lambda_L(0), Lambda_L(T) simeq pi^2 T / log (T / Lambda_L(0)). Therefore, the range of applicability in energy of the lambda phi^4 field theory increases with the temperature.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

The Specific Heat of Normal, Degenerate Quark Matter: Non-Fermi Liquid Corrections

In normal degenerate quark matter, the exchange of dynamically screened transverse gluons introduces infrared divergences in the quark self-energies that lead to the breakdown of the Fermi liquid description. If the core of neutron stars are composed of quark matter with a normal component, cooling by direct quark Urca processes may be modified by non-Fermi liquid corrections. We find that while the quasiparticle density of states is finite and non-zero at the Fermi surface, its frequency derivative diverges and results in non-Fermi liquid corrections to the specific heat of the normal, degenerate component of quark matter. We study these non-perturbative non-Fermi liquid corrections to the specific heat and the temperature dependence of the chemical potential and show that these lead to a reduction of the specific heat.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Self-gravitating fluid dynamics, unstabilities and solitons

This work studies the hydrodynamics of self-gravitating compressible isothermal fluids. We show that the hydrodynamic evolution equations in absence of viscosity are scale covariant. We study the evolution of the time dependent fluctuations around singular and regular isothermal spheres. We linearize the fluid equations around such stationary solutions and apply Laplace transform to solve them. We find that the system is stable below a critical size (X ~ 9.0 in dimensionless variables) and unstable above; this size is the same critical size found in the study of the thermodynamical stability in the canonical ensemble and associated to a center-to-border density ratio of 32.1 . We prove that the value of this critical size is independent of the Reynolds number of the system. Furthermore, we give a detailed description of the series of successive dynamical instabilities that appear at higher and higher sizes following the geometric progression X_n ~ 10.7^n. We turn then to study exact solutions of the hydrodynamic equations without viscosity and we provide analytic and numerical axisymmetric soliton-type solutions. The stability of exact solutions corresponding to a collapsing filament is studied by computing linear fluctuations. Radial fluctuations growing faster than the background are found for all sizes of the system. However, a critical size (X ~ 4.5) appears, separating a weakly from a strongly unstable regime.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Real Time Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Quantum Plasmas. Quantum Kinetics and the Dynamical Renormalization Group

We implement the dynamical renormalization group (DRG) using the hard thermal loop (HTL) approximation for the real-time nonequilibrium dynamics in hot plasmas. The focus is on the study of the relaxation of gauge and fermionic mean fields and on the quantum kinetics of the photon and fermion distribution functions. As a concrete physical prediction, we find that for a QGP of temperature T sim 200 MeV and lifetime 10 < t < 50 fm/c there is a new contribution to the hard (k \sim T) photon production from off-shell bremsstrahlung (q rightarrow q gamma and bar{q} rightarrow bar{q} gamma) at just O (alpha) that grows logarithmically in time and is comparable to the known on-shell Compton scattering and pair annihilation at O(alpha alpha_s).

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Real-time nonequilibrium dynamics in hot QED plasmas: dynamical renormalization group approach

We study the real-time nonequilibrium dynamics in hot QED plasmas implementing a dynamical renormalization group and using the hard thermal loop (HTL) approximation. The focus is on the study of the relaxation of gauge and fermionic mean fields and on the quantum kinetics of the photon and fermion distribution functions. For semihard photons of momentum eT << k << T we find to leading order in the HTL that the gauge mean field relaxes in time with a power law as a result of infrared enhancement of the spectral density near the Landau damping threshold. The dynamical renormalization group reveals the emergence of detailed balance for microscopic time scales larger than 1/k while the rates are still varying with time. The quantum kinetic equation for the photon distribution function allows us to study photon production from a thermalized quark-gluon plasma (QGP) by off-shell effects. We find that for a QGP at temperature T ~ 200 MeV and of lifetime 10 < t < 50 fm/c the hard (k ~ T) photon production from off-shell bremsstrahlung (q -> q γand \bar{q} -> \bar{q}γ) at O(α) grows logarithmically in time and is comparable to that produced from on-shell Compton scattering and pair annihilation at O(αα_s). Fermion mean fields relax as e^{-αT t ln(ω_P t)} with ω_P=eT/3 the plasma frequency, as a consequence of the emission and absorption of soft magnetic photons. A quantum kinetic equation for hard fermions is obtained directly in real time from a field theoretical approach improved by the dynamical renormalization group. The collision kernel is time-dependent and infrared finite.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Non-Fermi Liquid Aspects of Cold and Dense QED and QCD: Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium

Infrared divergences from the exchange of dynamically screened magnetic gluons (photons) lead to the breakdown of the Fermi liquid description of the {\em normal} state of cold and dense QCD and QED. We implement a resummation of these divergences via the renormalization group to obtain the spectral density, dispersion relation, widths and wave function renormalization of single quasiparticles near the Fermi surface. We find that all feature scaling with anomalous dimensions: $ω_p({k}) \propto |k-k_F|^{\frac{1}{1-2λ}} ~ ; ~ Γ(k) \propto |k-k_F|^{\frac{1}{1-2λ}} ~;~ Z_p({k}) \propto |k-k_F|^{\frac{2λ}{1-2λ}}$ with $λ= \fracα{6π} ~ {for QED} \vspace{0.5 ex} ~,~ \frac{α_s}{6π} \frac{N^2_c-1}{2N_c} \~~{for QCD with}$. The discontinuity of the distribution function for quasiparticles near the Fermi surface vanishes. The dynamical renormalization group is implemented to study the relaxation of quasiparticles in real time. Quasiparticles with Fermi momentum have vanishing group velocity and relax with a power law with a coupling dependent anomalous dimension.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

The Statistical Mechanics of the Self-Gravitating Gas: Equation of State and Fractal Dimension

We provide a complete picture of the self-gravitating non-relativistic gas at thermal equilibrium using Monte Carlo simulations (MC), analytic mean field methods (MF) and low density expansions. The system is shown to possess an infinite volume limit, both in the canonical (CE) and in the microcanonical ensemble (MCE) when N, V \to \infty, keeping N/ V^{1/3} fixed. We {\bf compute} the equation of state (we do not assume it as is customary), the entropy, the free energy, the chemical potential, the specific heats, the compressibilities, the speed of sound and analyze their properties, signs and singularities. The MF equation of state obeys a {\bf first order} non-linear differential equation of Abel type. The MF gives an accurate picture in agreement with the MC simulations both in the CE and MCE. The inhomogeneous particle distribution in the ground state suggest a fractal distribution with Haussdorf dimension D with D slowly decreasing with increasing density, 1 \lesssim D < 3.

hep-th↗

arXiv2000

Out of Equilibrium Fields in Self-consistent Inflationary Dynamics. Density Fluctuations

The physics during the inflationary stage of the universe is of quantum nature involving extremely high energy densities. Moreover, it is out of equilibrium on a fastly expanding dynamical geometry.We present in these lectures non-perturbative out of equilibrium field theoretical methods in cosmological universes. We then study the non-linear dynamics of quantum fields in matter and radiation dominated FRW and de Sitter universes. We investigate the explosive particle production due to spinodal instabilities and parametric amplification in FRW and deSitter universes with and without symmetry breaking. We show how the particle production is sensitive to the expansion of the universe.We present a complete renormalization scheme for the equation of motion and the energy momentum tensor in flat cosmologies. We then consider an O(N) inflaton model coupled self-consistently to gravity in the semiclassical approximation, with `new inflation' type initial conditions. We study the dynamics self-consistently and non-perturbatively with non-equilibrium field theory methods in the large N limit. We find that spinodal instabilities drive the growth of non-perturbatively large quantum fluctuations which shut off the inflationary growth of the scale factor. A very specific combination of these large quantum fluctuations plus the inflaton zero mode assemble into a new effective field. This new field behaves classically and it is the object which actually rolls down. The metric perturbations during inflation are computed using this effective field and the Bardeen variable for superhorizon modes during inflation. We compute the amplitude and index for the spectrum of scalar density and tensorperturbations and find for these models that the spinodal instabilities are responsible for a `red' primordial spectrum.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Relaxing Near the Critical Point

Critical slowing down of the relaxation of the order parameter is relevant both in early the universe and in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. We study the relaxation rate of the order parameter in an O(N) scalar theory near the critical point to model the non-equilibrium dynamics of critical fluctuations near the chiral phase transition.A lowest order perturbative calculation (two loops in the coupling lambda) reveals the breakdown of perturbation theory for long-wavelength fluctuations in the critical region and the emergence of a hierarchy of scales with hard q>T, semisoft T >> q >> lambda T and soft lambda T>>q loop momenta which are widely separated for weak coupling. The non-perturbative resummation in the large N limit reveals the renormalization of the interaction and the crossover to an effective 3D-theory for soft momenta.The effective 3D coupling goes to the Wilson-Fisher 3D fixed point in the soft limit.The relaxation rate of the order parameter for wave vectors lambda T >>k>> k_{us} or near the critical temperature lambda T>>m_T>>k_{us} with the ultra soft scale k_{us} = [(lambda T)/(4pi)] exp[-(4pi/lambda)] is dominated by classical semisoft loop momentum leading to Gamma(k,T) = lambda T/(2 pi N). For wavectors k<< k_{us} the damping rate is dominated by hard loop momenta and given by Gamma(k,T)=4 pi T/[3N ln(T/k)]. Analogously, for homogeneous fluctuations in the ultracritical region m_T<<k_{us} the damping rate is given by Gamma_0(m_T,T)=4 pi T/[3N ln(T/m_T)]. Thus critical slowing down emerges for ultrasoft fluctuations where the rate is lambda-independent. The strong coupling regime and the shortcomings of the quasiparticle interpretation are discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Damping Rates and Mean Free Paths of Soft Fermion Collective Excitations in a Hot Fermion-Gauge-Scalar Theory

We study the transport coefficients, damping rates and mean free paths of soft fermion collective excitations in a hot fermion-gauge-scalar plasma with the goal of understanding the main physical mechanisms that determine transport of chirality in scenarios of non-local electroweak baryogenesis. The focus is on identifying the different transport coefficients for the different branches of soft collective excitations of the fermion spectrum. These branches correspond to collective excitations with opposite ratios of chirality to helicity and different dispersion relations. By combining results from the hard thermal loop (HTL) resummation program with a novel mechanism of fermion damping through heavy scalar decay, we obtain a robust description of the different damping rates and mean free paths for the soft collective excitations to leading order in HTL and lowest order in the Yukawa coupling. The space-time evolution of wave packets of collective excitations unambiguously reveals the respective mean free paths. We find that whereas both the gauge and scalar contribution to the damping rates are different for the different branches, the difference of mean free paths for both branches is mainly determined by the decay of the heavy scalar into a hard fermion and a soft collective excitation. We argue that these mechanisms are robust and are therefore relevant for non-local scenarios of baryogenesis either in the Standard Model or extensions thereof.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Dynamical Renormalization Group Approach to Quantum Kinetics in Scalar and Gauge Theories

We derive quantum kinetic equations from a quantum field theory implementing a diagrammatic perturbative expansion improved by a resummation via the dynamical renormalization group. The method begins by obtaining the equation of motion of the distribution function in perturbation theory. The solution of this equation of motion reveals secular terms that grow in time, the dynamical renormalization group resums these secular terms in real time and leads directly to the quantum kinetic equation. We used this method to study the relaxation in a cool gas of pions and sigma mesons in the O(4) chiral linear sigma model. We obtain in relaxation time approximation the pion and sigma meson relaxation rates. We also find that in large momentum limit emission and absorption of massless pions result in threshold infrared divergence in sigma meson relaxation rate and lead to a crossover behavior in relaxation. We then study the relaxation of charged quasiparticles in scalar electrodynamics (SQED). While longitudinal, Debye screened photons lead to purely exponential relaxation, transverse photons, only dynamically screened by Landau damping lead to anomalous relaxation, thus leading to a crossover between two different relaxational regimes. We emphasize that infrared divergent damping rates are indicative of non-exponential relaxation and the dynamical renormalization group reveals the correct relaxation directly in real time. Finally we also show that this method provides a natural framework to interpret and resolve the issue of pinch singularities out of equilibrium and establish a direct correspondence between pinch singularities and secular terms. We argue that this method is particularly well suited to study quantum kinetics and transport in gauge theories.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

Non-equilibrium quantum plasmas in scalar QED: photon production, magnetic and Debye masses, and conductivity

We study the generation of a non-equilibrium plasma in scalar QED with N charged scalar fields through spinodal instabilities in the case of a super cooled second order phase transition and parametric amplification when the order parameter oscillates with large amplitude around the minimum of the potential.The focus is to study the non-equilibrium electromagnetic properties of the plasma, such as photon production, electric and magnetic screening and conductivity. A novel kinetic equation is introduced to compute photon production far away from equilibrium in the large N limit and lowest order in the electromagnetic coupling.During the early stages of the dynamics the photon density grows exponentially and asymptotically the amplitude and frequency distribution becomes \sim alpha m^2/[lambda^2 ω^3] with lambda the scalar self-coupling and m the scalar mass.In the case of a phase transition,electric and magnetic fields are correlated on distances xi(t) \sim sqrt{t} during the early stages and the power spectrum is peaked at low momentum. Magnetic and Debye screening masses are defined out of equilibrium. The magnetic mass vanishes out of equilibrium in this abelian models. The Debye mass turns to be m^2_{Deb} \sim alpha m^2/lambda for a supercooled phase transition while in the case of an oscillating order parameter an interpolating time dependent Debye mass grows as alpha sqrt{m t}/lambda due to a non-linear resonance at low momentum in the charged particle distribution. The build-up of the transverse electric conductivity is studied during the formation of the non-equilibrium plasma. Its long wavelength limit reaches a value sigma_{k\approx 0} \sim alpha m/lambda at the end of the stage of linear instabilities. Its asymptotic form in terms of the non-equilibrium particle distribution functions is derived.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1999

Non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum field theory at high density: the tsunami

The dynamics of a dense relativistic quantum fluid out of thermodynamic equilibrium is studied in the framework of the Phi^4 scalar field theory in the large N limit. The time evolution of a particle distribution in momentum space (the tsunami) is computed. The effective mass felt by the particles in such a high density medium equals the tree level mass plus the expectation value of the squared field. The case of negative tree level squared mass is particularly interesting. In such case dynamical symmetry restoration as well as dynamical symmetry breaking can happen. Furthermore, the symmetry may stay broken with vanishing asymptotic squared mass showing the presence of out of equilibrium Goldstone bosons. We study these phenomena and identify the set of initial conditions that lead to each case. We compute the equation of state which turns to depend on the initial state. Although the system does not thermalize, the equation of state for asymptotically broken symmetry is of radiation type. We compute the correlation functions at equal times. The two point correlator for late times is the sum of different terms. One stems from the initial particle distribution. Another term accounts for the out of equilibrium Goldstone bosons created by spinodal unstabilities when the symmetry is asymptotically broken.Both terms are of the order of the inverse of the coupling for distances where causal signals can connect the two points. The contribution of the out of equilibrium Goldstones exhibits scaling behaviour in a generalized sense.

hep-ph↗