Time Evolution of Non-Equilibrium Effective Action

TL;DR

This paper introduces an exact functional differential equation to describe the time evolution of correlation functions in non-equilibrium statistical systems, facilitating analysis without solving microscopic equations.

Contribution

It presents a systematic framework for non-equilibrium physics using generating functionals, avoiding explicit solutions of microscopic dynamics.

Findings

Derivation of an exact functional differential equation for correlation functions.

Enables analysis of non-equilibrium systems without solving nonlinear microscopic equations.

Provides insights into the approach to equilibrium in statistical systems.

Abstract

The time evolution of correlation functions in statistical systems is described by an exact functional differential equation for the corresponding generating functionals. This allows for a systematic discussion of non-equilibrium physics and the approach to equilibrium without the need of solving the nonlinear microscopic equations of motion or computing the time dependence of the probability distribution explicitly.