Conventional transport theory is not really applicable to nonequilibrium systems which exhibit strong quantum effects. We present two different approaches to overcome this problem. Firstly we point out how transport equations may be derived that incorporate a nontrivial spectral function as a typical quantum effect, and test this approach in a toy model of a strongly interacting degenerate plasma. Secondly we explore a path to include nonequilibrium effects into quantum field theory through momentum mixing transformations in Fock space. Although the two approaches are completely orthogonal, they lead to the same coherent conclusion.
In this review we study the elementary structure of Conformal Field Theory in which is a recipe for further studies of critical behavior of various systems in statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. We briefly review CFT in dimensions which plays a prominent role for example in the well-known duality AdS/CFT in string theory where the CFT lives on the AdS boundary. We also describe the mapping of the theory from the cylinder to a complex plane which will help us gain an insight into the process of radial quantization and radial ordering. Finally we will develop the representation of the Virasoro algebra which is the well-known "Verma module". Â
After a brief review of the operator approach to quantum mechanics, Feynmans path integral, which expresses a transition amplitude as a sum over all paths, is derived. Adding a linear coupling to an external source J and a damping term to the Lagrangian, the ground-state persistence amplitude is obtained. This quantity serves as the generating functional Z[J] for n-point Green functions which are the main target when studying quantum field theory. Then the harmonic oscillator as an example for a one-dimensional quantum field theory is discussed and the reason why a relativistic quantum theory should be based on quantum fields is explained.
Minding one’s P’s and Q’s: From the one loop effective action in quantum field theory to classical transport theory