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MiS Preprint
20/2015
Local Thermal Equilibrium States in Quantum Field Theory
Michael Gransee
Abstract
It is well-known that thermal equilibrium states in quantum statistical mechanics and quantum field theory can be described in a mathematically rigorous manner by means of the so-called Kubo-Martin-Schwinger (KMS) condition. This condition is based on certain analyticity and periodicity properties of correlation functions. On the other hand, the characterization of non-equilibrium states which only locally have thermal properties still constitutes a challenge in quantum field theory. A proposal by D. Buchholz, I. Ojima and H.-J. Roos for characterizing local thermal equilibrium states in quantum field theory is reviewed. The connection of this proposal to a recently proposed generalization of the KMS condition is discussed.
