Field theory for the dynamics of the open $O(N)$ model

TL;DR

This paper develops a field theory for the nonequilibrium dynamics of open $O(N)$ models, deriving an open-system Boltzmann equation and analyzing how dissipation and thermalization compete, with implications for symmetry-breaking and late-time behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a systematic derivation of an open-system Boltzmann equation for the $O(N)$ model, highlighting differences from closed systems and analyzing late-time dynamics with numerical simulations.

Findings

Interactions are screened at small momenta, leading to effectively collisionless evolution.

Fluctuations dissipate into the environment before thermalizing.

Order parameter equilibrates faster when $O(N)$ symmetry is preserved.

Abstract

A field theory approach for the nonequilibrium relaxation dynamics in open systems at late times is developed. In the absence of conservation laws, all excitations are subject to dissipation. Nevertheless, ordered stationary states satisfy Goldstone's theorem. It implies a vanishing damping rate at small momenta, which in turn allows for competition between environment-induced dissipation and thermalization due to collisions. We derive the dynamic theory in the symmetry-broken phase of an $O(N)$-symmetric field theory based on an expansion of the two-particle irreducible (2PI) effective action to next-to-leading order in $1/N$ and highlight the analogies and differences to the corresponding theory for closed systems. A central result of this approach is the systematic derivation of an \emph{open-system Boltzmann equation}, which takes a very different form from its closed-system counterpart due to the absence of well-defined quasiparticles. As a consequence of the general structure of its derivation, it applies to open, gapless field theories that satisfy certain testable conditions, which we identify here. Specifically for the $O(N)$ model, we use scaling analysis and numerical simulations to show that interactions are screened efficiently at small momenta and, therefore, the late-time evolution is effectively collisionless. This implies that fluctuations induced by a quench dissipate into the environment before they thermalize. Goldstone's theorem also constrains the dynamics far from equilibrium, which is used to show that the order parameter equilibrates more quickly for quenches preserving the $O(N)$ symmetry than those breaking it explicitly.