On the Quantum Kinetic Equation in Weak Turbulence

Abstract

The quantum kinetic equation used in the study of weak turbulence is reconsidered in the context of a theory with a generic quartic interaction. The expectation value of the time derivative of the mode number operators is computed in a perturbation expansion which places the large diagonal component of the quartic term in the unperturbed Hamiltonian. Although one is not perturbing around a free field theory, the calculation is easily tractable owing to the fact that the unperturbed Hamiltonian can be written solely in terms of the mode number operators.