Local Thermal Equilibrium States in Quantum Field Theory

Michael Gransee

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Submission date: 16. Mar. 2015 (revised version: June 2015)
Pages: 17
published in: Quantum mathematical physics : a bridge between mathematics and physics / F. Finster ... (eds.)
Basel : Birkhäuser, 2016. - P. 101 - 117 
DOI number (of the published article): 10.1007/978-3-319-26902-3_6
Bibtex
with the following different title: Local thermal equilibrium states in relativistic quantum field theory
MSC-Numbers: 81T05, 81T28, 82C10
Keywords and phrases: Quantum Field Theory, local thermal equilibrium, Quantum Statistical Mechanics
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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.