Harmonic Crystals in the Half-Space, I. Convergence to Equilibrium

Abstract

We consider the dynamics of a harmonic crystal in the half-space with zero boundary condition. It is assumed that the initial date is a random function with zero mean, finite mean energy density which also satisfies a mixing condition of Rosenblatt or Ibragimov type. We study the distribution $\mu_t$ of the solution at time $t\in\R$. The main result is the convergence of $\mu_t$ to a Gaussian measure as $t\to\infty$ which is time stationary with a covariance inherited from the initial (in general, non-Gaussian) measure.