Quantum kinetic theory: correlations and linking

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum kinetic theory using Feynman paths to evaluate correlations in a gas, revealing topological effects like linking numbers and magnetic correlations without multi-particle interactions.

Contribution

It introduces an exact quantum kinetic correlation calculation via path analysis, connecting topology with physical correlations in a simplified Boltzmann gas model.

Findings

Exact calculation of quantum correlations using Feynman paths.

Topological significance of linking numbers in particle paths.

Linear growth of linking number correlations between hoops.

Abstract

Classically the kinetic theory for a perfect gas has zero spatial number density correlation between separate points because the particles are independent. But the joint spatial and temporal correlation is non-zero (and easily calculable) because each individual particle moves in a straight line. The same holds for particle flux density correlation. The equivalent 'quantum kinetic theory' correlations are evaluated here via Feynman paths with their direct access to geometry and topology. The calculation is exact, yielding known special functions, but it is quite primitive physically. No heat bath, and no multi-particle statistics are invoked (the gas is thus 'Boltzmann'). Formally it reduces to path analysis of Brownian motion, in fact, of Brownian loops (suitably analytically continued). A check of the results is their correct classical limit. Attention is paid to the all-time-integral of the flux density correlation, with its topological significance. A particle's random path, in the presence of a fixed hypothetical hoop of arbitrary shape, accumulates a random linking number by repeatedly passing through it, positively or negatively. The mean is zero and the mean square is infinite, uninformatively. The interest lies in two separate arbitrary hoops: the linking numbers are correlated, their average product grows linearly, and is calculated from the flux density correlation. For a charged particle this would produce a correlation the induced Ampere magnetic circulation around the hoops.