Particle number in kinetic theory
High Energy Physics - Theory
2009-11-07 v2 Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Quantum Physics
Abstract
We provide a derivation for the particle number densities on phase space for scalar and fermionic fields in terms of Wigner functions. Our expressions satisfy the desired properties: for bosons the particle number is positive, for fermions it lies in the interval between zero and one, and both are consistent with thermal field theory. As applications we consider the Bunch-Davies vacuum and fermionic preheating after inflation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/0211219,
title = {Particle number in kinetic theory},
author = {Bjorn Garbrecht and Tomislav Prokopec and Michael G. Schmidt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0211219},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
9 pages, 2 figures, macros: revtex, epsfig. Published version