I review the generating function for quantum-statistical mechanics, known as the Feynman-Vernon influence functional, the decoherence functional, or the Schwinger-Keldysh path integral. I describe a probability-conserving $i\varepsilon$ prescription from a path-integral implementation of Lindblad evolution. I also explain how to generalize the formalism to accommodate out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs), leading to a Larkin-Ovchinnikov path integral. My goal is to provide step-by-step calculations of path integrals associated to the harmonic oscillator.
We classify all possible allowed constitutive relations of relativistic fluids in a statistical mechanical limit using the Schwinger-Keldysh effective action for hydrodynamics. We find that microscopic unitarity enforces genuinely new constraints on the allowed transport coefficients that are invisible in the classical hydrodynamic description; they are not implied by the second law or the Onsager relations. We term these conditions Schwinger-Keldysh positivity and provide explicit examples of the various allowed terms.
We offer a semi-classical re-interpretation of the 4D Majorana fermion mass term as an `influence action' in the Schwinger-Keldysh formulation of fermionic Quantum Field Theories.
We develop a prescription for computing real-time correlation functions defined on a Schwinger-Keldysh contour for non-equilibrium systems using gravity. The prescription involves a new analytic continuation procedure in a black hole geometry which can be dynamical. For a system with a slowly varying horizon, the continuation enables computation of the Schwinger-Keldysh generating functional using derivative expansion, drastically simplifying calculations. We illustrate the prescription with two-point functions for a scalar operator. We then use it to derive from gravity the recently proposed …
We construct a holographic dual of the Schwinger-Keldysh effective action for the dissipative low-energy dynamics of relativistic charged matter at strong coupling in a fixed thermal background. To do so, we use a mixed signature bulk spacetime whereby an eternal asymptotically anti-de Sitter black hole is glued to its Euclidean counterpart along an initial time slice in a way to match the desired double-time contour of the dual field theory. Our results are consistent with existing literature and can be regarded as a fully-ab initio derivation of a Schwinger-Keldysh effective action. In addit…
We study an extension of quasi-single field model of inflation containing multiple semi-heavy isocurvaton fields using the Schwinger-Keldysh mechanism. We calculate the amplitudes and the shapes of the bispectrum and the trispectrum. We show that the diagrammatic approach associated with the Schwinger-Keldysh mechanism simplifies the analysis considerably compared to standard in-in formalism. This method is helpful to study the spectroscopy of masses and couplings of light and semi-heavy fields during inflation.
We examine, in a quantum mechanical setting, the Hilbert space representation of the BRST symmetry associated with Schwinger-Keldysh path integrals. This structure had been postulated to encode important constraints on influence functionals in coarse-grained systems with dissipation, or in open quantum systems. Operationally, this entails uplifting the standard Schwinger-Keldysh two-copy formalism into superspace by appending BRST ghost degrees of freedom. These statements were previously argued at the level of the correlation functions. We provide herein a complementary perspective by working…
We study the evolution of the non-equilibrium quantum fields from a highly excited initial state in two approaches: the standard Keldysh-Schwinger diagram technique and the semiclassical expansion. We demonstrate explicitly that these two approaches coincide if the coupling constant $g$ and the Plank constant $\hbar$ are small simultaneously. Also, we discuss loop diagrams of the perturbative approach, which are summed up by the leading order term of the semiclassical expansion. As an example, we consider shear viscosity for the scalar field theory at the leading semiclassical order. We introd…
We compute Schwinger-Keldysh effective action for a relativistic heavy quark (with constant background velocity) in strongly coupled N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma. The holographic dual description involves a noisy trailing string moving in Schwarzschild-AdS5 black brane. The noise is caused by Hawking radiation emitted from string worldsheet horizon. Besides quadractic terms, the effective action contains cubic interactions, which are entirely induced by the constant background velocity. The nonlinear fluctuation-dissipation relations for three-point functions are discussed based on h…
We perform the large-$N$ expansion in the Schwinger-Keldysh formulation of non-equilibrium quantum systems with matrix degrees of freedom, and study universal features of the anticipated dual string theory. We find a rich refinement of the topological genus expansion: In the original formulation, the future time instant where the forward and backward branches of the Schwinger-Keldysh time contour meet is associated with its own worldsheet genus expansion. After the Keldysh rotation, the worldsheets decompose into a classical and quantum part.
The existence of a minimum length in quantum gravity is investigated by computing the in-in expectation value of the proper distance in the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. No minimum geometrical length is found for arbitrary gravitational theories to all orders in perturbation theory. Using non-perturbative techniques, we also show that neither the conformal sector of general relativity nor higher-derivative gravity features a minimum length. A minimum length scale, on the other hand, seems to always be present when one considers in-out amplitudes, from which one could extract the energy scale of…
Graviton mediated polarisation-polarisation entanglement of photons by means of the Schwinger Keldysh and Kadanoff Baym formalisms and Quantum Boltzmann equations
Schwinger-Keldysh effective theory of charge transport: redundancies and systematic $ω/T$ expansion
Theoretical Particle Physics Laboratory (LPTP), Institute of Physics, EPFL（洛桑联邦理工学院物理研究所理论粒子物理实验室）；Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University（卡内基梅隆大学物理系）
Causally ordered correlation functions of local operators in near-thermal quantum systems computed using the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism obey a set of Ward identities. These can be understood rather simply as the consequence of a topological (BRST) algebra, called the universal Schwinger-Keldysh superalgebra, as explained in our companion paper arXiv:1610.01940. In the present paper we provide a mathematical discussion of this topological algebra. In particular, we argue that the structures can be understood in the language of extended equivariant cohomology. To keep the discussion self-contai…
We initiate the study of open quantum field theories using holographic methods. Specifically, we consider a quantum field theory (the system) coupled to a holographic field theory at finite temperature (the environment). We investigate the effects of integrating out the holographic environment with an aim of obtaining an effective dynamics for the resulting open quantum field theory. The influence functionals which enter this open effective action are determined by the real-time (Schwinger-Keldysh) correlation functions of the holographic thermal environment. To evaluate the latter, we exploit…
Potential non-relativistic Quantum Electrodynamics and the Keldysh-Schwinger formalism is used to derive Kadanoff-Baym-like equations for two-body field correlators. These cover the out-off-equilibrium dynamics and spectrum of heavy particle-antiparticle pairs under ultra-soft transitions inside a plasma background, whose temperature is much smaller compared to the typical relative pair momentum. It is shown that the dynamical equation for the pair phase-space distribution function, containing recombination and dissociation via the electric dipole interactions, is consistent with the previous …
We construct effective field theory for SU(2) isospin charge diffusion, based on holographic Schwinger-Keldysh contour arXiv:2008.01269. The holographic model consists of a probe SU(2) gauge field in a doubled Schwarzschild-AdS$_5$ geometry. Accurate to first order in derivative expansion, we analytically compute the effective action up to quartic order in hydrodynamical fields. The effective theory contains both non-Gaussianity for noises and nonlinear interactions between noises and dynamical variables. Moreover, the effective theory captures both thermal and quantum fluctuations, which perf…
An effective action for diffusion of a conserved $U(1)$ charge is derived to all orders in the derivative expansion within a holographic model dual to the Schwinger-Keldysh closed time path. A systematic approach to solution of the 5D Maxwell equations in a doubled Schwarzschild-AdS$_5$ black brane geometry is developed. Constitutive relation for the stochastic charge current is shown to have a term induced by thermal fluctuations (coloured noise). All transport coefficient functions parameterising the effective action and constitutive relations are computed analytically in the hydrodynamic ex…
We present a systematic introduction to the diagrammatic method for practical calculations in inflationary cosmology, based on Schwinger-Keldysh path integral formalism. We show in particular that the diagrammatic rules can be derived directly from a classical Lagrangian even in the presence of derivative couplings. Furthermore, we use quasi-single-field inflation as an example to show how this formalism, combined with the trick of mixed propagator, can significantly simplify the calculation of some in-in correlation functions. The resulting bispectrum includes the lighter scalar case ($m<3H/2…
The Schwinger-Keldysh diagram technique is usually involved in the calculation of real-time in-in correlation functions. In the case of a thermal state, one can analytically continue imaginary-time Matsubara correlation functions to real times. Nevertheless, not all real-time correlation functions usually can be obtained by such procedure. Moreover, numerical analytic continuation is an ill-posed problem. Thus, even in the case of a thermal state one may need for the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. If the potential of a system admits degenerate minima, instantonic effects enter the game, so one s…
We review the Schwinger-Keldysh, or in-in, formalism for studying quantum dynamics of systems out-of-equilibrium. The main motivation is to rephrase well known facts in the subject in a mathematically elegant setting, by exhibiting a set of BRST symmetries inherent in the construction. We show how these fundamental symmetries can be made manifest by working in a superspace formalism. We argue that this rephrasing is extremely efficacious in understanding low energy dynamics following the usual renormalization group approach, for the BRST symmetries are robust under integrating out degrees of f…
We unveil the universal (model-independent) symmetry satisfied by Schwinger-Keldysh quantum field theories whenever they describe equilibrium dynamics. This is made possible by a generalization of the Schwinger-Keldysh path-integral formalism in which the physical time can be re-parametrized to arbitrary contours in the complex plane. Strong relations between correlation functions, such as the fluctuation-dissipation theorems, are derived as immediate consequences of this symmetry of equilibrium. In this view, quantum non-equilibrium dynamics -- e.g. when driving with a time-dependent potentia…
Via the worldline instanton method, we study electron-positron pair creation by a strong electric field of the profile $E/\cosh^2(kx)$ superimposed by a weaker pulse $E'/\cosh^2(ωt)$. If the temporal Keldysh parameter $γ_ω=mω/(qE)$ exceeds a threshold value $γ_ω^{\rm crit}$ which depends on the spatial Keldysh parameter $γ_k=mk/(qE)$, we find a drastic enhancement of the pair creation probability -- reporting on what we believe to be the first analytic non-perturbative result for the interplay between temporal and spatial field dependences $E(t,x)$ in the Sauter-Schwinger effect.
Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad San Sebastián（圣塞巴斯蒂安大学工程学院）；Departamento de Física, FCFM, Universidad de Chile（智利大学理学院和核物理研究所物理系）；Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Torino, and INFN Sezione di Torino（都灵大学物理系及意大利国家核物理研究院都灵分部）；Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez（阿道夫·伊巴涅斯大学理工学）
We develop the effective field theoretical (EFT) approach to time-translational symmetry breaking of nonequilibrium open systems based on the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. In the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, all the symmetries of the microscopic Lagrangian are doubled essentially because the dynamical fields are doubled to describe the time-evolution along the closed-time-path. The effective Lagrangian for open systems are then obtained by coarse-graining the microscopic Schwinger-Keldysh Lagrangian. As a consequence of coarse-graining procedure, there appear the noise and dissipation effects, …
Motivated by cosmological Hartle-Hawking and microcanonical density matrix prescriptions for the quantum state of the Universe we develop Schwinger-Keldysh in-in formalism for generic nonequilibrium dynamical systems with the initial density matrix. We build the generating functional of in-in Green's functions and expectation values for a generic density matrix of the Gaussian type and show that the requirement of particle interpretation selects a distinguished set of positive/negative frequency basis functions of the wave operator of the theory, which is determined by the density matrix param…
Schwinger-Keldysh Path Integral for Gauge theories
Syracuse University（雪城大学）；Institute for Quantum & Information Sciences, Syracuse University（雪城大学量子与信息科学研究所）；Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI) the University of Tokyo（东京大学宇宙物理数学研究所（WPI）卡弗里研究所）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（理论物理 perimeter 研究所）；Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics, Imperial College（帝国理工学院阿卜杜斯·萨拉姆理论物理中心）；CERCA, Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University（凯斯西储大学物理系 CERCA）
We focus on the question of how relativistic fluid dynamics should be thought of as a Wilsonian effective field theory emerging from Schwinger-Keldysh path integrals. Taking the basic principles of Schwinger-Keldysh formalism seriously, we are led to a series of remarkable statements and conjectures, which we phrase in terms of a broad programme relating relativistic fluid dynamics and topological sigma models. Apart from the intrinsic interest for these ideas from the non-equilibrium field theory viewpoint, we also emphasize its relevance to various fundamental questions in black hole physics…
