Kadanoff-Baym Equations with Initial Correlations

Abstract

The Kadanoff-Baym equations (KBE) are usually derived under the assumption of the weakening of initial correlations (Bogolyubov's condition) and, therefore, fail to correctly describe the short time behavior. We demonstrate that this assumption is not necessary. Using functional derivatives techniques, we present a straightforward generalization of the KBE which allows to include arbitrary initial correlations and which is more general than previous derivations. As a result, an additional collision integral is obtained which is being damped out after a few collisions. Our results are complemented with numerical investigations showing the effect of initial correlations.