Nonequilibrium Self-Interacting Quantum Fields in Cosmology: The Liouville-Neumann Approach

Abstract

We present the so-called Liouville-Neumann (LN) approach to nonequilibrium quantum fields. The LN approach unifies the functional Schr\"{o}dinger equation and the LN equation for time-independent or time-dependent quantum systems and for equilibrium or nonequilibrium quantum systems. The LN approach is nonperturbative in that at the lowest order of coupling constant it gives the same results as those of the Gaussian effective potential at the zero and finite temperature in a Minkowski spacetime. We study a self-interacting quantum field in an expanding Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe. By studying a toy model of anharmonic oscillator and finding the underlying algebraic structure we propose a scheme to go beyond the Gaussian approximation.