Kinetic Field Theory Research Articles

Hydrodynamization and resummed viscous hydrodynamics

In this paper, I review our current understanding of the applicability of hydrodynamics to modeling the quark–gluon plasma (QGP), focusing on the question of hydrodynamization/thermalization of the QGP and the anisotropic hydrodynamics (aHydro) far-from-equilibrium hydrodynamic framework. I discuss the existence of far-from-equilibrium hydrodynamic attractors and methods for determining attractors within different hydrodynamical frameworks. I also discuss the determination of attractors from exact solutions to the Boltzmann equation in relaxation time approximation and effective kinetic field theory applied to quantum chromodynamics. I then present comparisons of the kinetic attractors with the attractors obtained in standard second-viscous hydrodynamics frameworks and aHydro. I demonstrate that, due to the resummation of terms to all orders in the inverse Reynolds number, the aHydro framework can describe both the weak- and strong-interaction limits. I then review the phenomenological application of aHydro to relativistic heavy-ion collisions using both quasiparticle aHydro and second-order viscous aHydro. The phenomenological results indicate that aHydro provides a controlled extension of dissipative relativistic hydrodynamics to the early-time far-from-equilibrium stage of heavy-ion collisions. This allows one to better describe the data and to extract the temperature dependence of transport coefficients at much higher temperatures than linearized second-order viscous hydrodynamics.

Local clustering of relic neutrinos: comparison of kinetic field theory and the Vlasov equation

Gravitational clustering in our cosmic vicinity is expected to lead to an enhancement of the local density of relic neutrinos. We derive expressions for the neutrino density, using a perturbative approach to kinetic field theory and perturbative solutions of the Vlasov equation up to second order. Our work reveals that both formalisms give exactly the same results and can thus be considered equivalent. Numerical evaluation of the local relic neutrino density at first and second order provides some fundamental insights into the frequently applied approach of linear response to neutrino clustering (also known as the Gilbert equation). Against the naive expectation, including the second-order contribution does not lead to an improvement of the prediction for the local relic neutrino density but to a dramatic overestimation. This is because perturbation theory breaks down in a momentum-dependent fashion and in particular for densities well below unity.

Baryon-photon interactions in Resummed Kinetic Field Theory

We explore how interactions between baryons and photons can be incorporated into Kinetic Field Theory (KFT), a description of cosmic structure formation based on classical Hamiltonian particle dynamics. In KFT, baryons are described as effective mesoscopic particles which represent fluid elements governed by the hydrodynamic equations. In this paper, we modify the mesoscopic particle model to include pressure effects exerted on baryonic matter through interactions with photons. As a proof of concept, we use this extended mesoscopic model to describe the tightly coupled baryon-photon fluid between matter-radiation equality and recombination. We show that this model can qualitatively reproduce the formation of baryon-acoustic oscillations in the cosmological power spectrum.

Local clustering of relic neutrinos with kinetic field theory

The density of relic neutrinos is expected to be enhanced due to clustering in our local neighbourhood at Earth. We introduce a novel analytical technique to calculate the neutrino overdensity, based on kinetic field theory. Kinetic field theory is a particle-based theory for cosmic structure formation and in this work we apply it for the first time to massive neutrinos. The gravitational interaction is expanded in a perturbation series and we take into account the first-order contribution to the local density of relic neutrinos. For neutrino masses that are consistent with cosmological neutrino mass bounds, our results are in excellent agreement with state-of-the-art calculations.

Kinetic field theory: generic effects of alternative gravity theories on non-linear cosmic density-fluctuations

Non-linear cosmic structures contain valuable information on the expansion history of the background space-time, the nature of dark matter, and the gravitational interaction. The recently developed kinetic field theory of cosmic structure formation (KFT) allows to accurately calculate the non-linear power spectrum of cosmic density fluctuations up to wave numbers of k ≲ 10 h Mpc-1 at redshift zero. Cosmology and gravity enter this calculation via two functions, viz. the background expansion function and possibly a time-dependent modification of the gravitational coupling strength.The success of the cosmological standard model based on general relativity suggests that cosmological models in generalized theories of gravity should have observable effects differing only weakly from those in standard cosmology. Based on this assumption, we derive the functional, first-order Taylor expansion of the non-linear power spectrum of cosmic density fluctuations obtained from the mean-field approximation in KFT in terms of the expansion function and the gravitational coupling strength. This allows us to study non-linear power spectra expected in large classes of generalized gravity theories. To give one example, we apply our formalism to generalized Proca theories.

Kinetic field theory: perturbation theory beyond first order

We present recent improvements in the perturbative treatment of particle interactions in Kinetic Field Theory (KFT) for inertial Zel'dovich trajectories. KFT has been developed for the systematic analytical calculation of non-linear cosmic structure formation on the basis of microscopic phase-space dynamics. We improve upon the existing treatment of the interaction operator by deriving a more rigorous treatment of phase-space trajectories of particles in an expanding universe. We then show how these results can be applied to KFT perturbation theory by calculating corrections to the late-time dark matter power spectrum at second order in the interaction operator. We find that the modified treatment of interactions w.r.t. inertial Zel'dovich trajectories improves the agreement of KFT with simulation results on intermediate scales compared to earlier results. Additionally, we illustrate that including particle interactions up to second order leads to a systematic improvement of the non-linear power spectrum compared to the first-order result.

Kinetic field theory: Higher-order perturbation theory

We give a detailed exposition of the formalism of Kinetic Field Theory (KFT) with emphasis on the perturbative determination of observables. KFT is a statistical non-equilibrium classical field theory based on the path integral formulation of classical mechanics, employing the powerful techniques developed in the context of quantum field theory to describe classical systems. Unlike previous work on KFT, we perform the integration over the probability distribution of initial conditions in the very last step. This significantly improves the clarity of the perturbative treatment and allows for physical interpretation of intermediate results. We give an introduction to the general framework, but focus on the application to interacting $N$-body systems. Specializing the results to cosmic structure formation, we reproduce the linear growth of the cosmic density fluctuation power spectrum on all scales from microscopic, Newtonian particle dynamics alone.

On the asymptotic behaviour of cosmic density-fluctuation power spectra of cold dark matter

ABSTRACTWe study the small-scale asymptotic behaviour of the cold dark matter density fluctuation power spectrum in the Zel’dovich approximation, without introducing an ultraviolet cut-off. Assuming an initially correlated Gaussian random field and spectral index 0 < ns < 1, we derive the small-scale asymptotic behaviour of the initial momentum–momentum correlations. This result is then used to derive the asymptotics of the power spectrum in the Zel’dovich approximation. Our main result is an asymptotic series, dominated by a k−3 tail at large wave-numbers, containing higher-order terms that differ by integer powers of $k^{n_\mathrm{ s}-1}$ and logarithms of k. Furthermore, we show that dark matter power spectra with an ultraviolet cut-off develop an intermediate range of scales where the power spectrum is accurately described by the asymptotics of dark matter without a cut-off. These results reveal information about the mathematical structure that underlies the perturbative terms in kinetic field theory and thus the non-linear power spectrum. We also discuss the sensitivity of the small-scale asymptotics to the spectral index ns.

Kinetic field theory: Non-linear cosmic power spectra in the mean-field approximation

We use the recently developed Kinetic Field Theory (KFT) for cosmic structure formation to show how non-linear power spectra for cosmic density fluctuations can be calculated in a mean-field approximation to the particle interactions. Our main result is a simple, closed and analytic, approximate expression for this power spectrum. This expression has two parameters characterising non-linear structure growth which can be calibrated within KFT itself. Using this self-calibration, the non-linear power spectrum agrees with results obtained from numerical simulations to within typically \lesssim10\,\%≲10% up to wave numbers k\lesssim10\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}k≲10hMpc−1 at redshift z = 0z=0. Adjusting the two parameters to optimise agreement with numerical simulations, the relative difference to numerical results shrinks to typically \lesssim 5\,\%≲5%. As part of the derivation of our mean-field approximation, we show that the effective interaction potential between dark-matter particles relative to Zel’dovich trajectories is sourced by non-linear cosmic density fluctuations only, and is approximately of Yukawa rather than Newtonian shape.

A first comparison of Kinetic Field Theory with Eulerian Standard Perturbation Theory

We present a detailed comparison of the newly developed particle-based Kinetic Field Theory framework for cosmic large-scale structure formation with the established formalism of Eulerian Standard Perturbation Theory. We highlight the qualitative differences of both approaches by a comparative analysis of the respective equations of motion and implementation of initial conditions. A natural starting point for a first quantitative comparison is given by the non-interacting regime of free-streaming kinematics. Our results suggest that Kinetic Field Theory contains a complete resummation of Standard Perturbation Theory in this regime. We further show that the exact free-streaming solution of Kinetic Field Theory cannot be recovered in any finite order of Standard Perturbation Theory. Kinetic Field Theory should therefore provide a better starting point for perturbative treatments of non-linear structure formation.

Resummed kinetic field theory: a model of coupled baryonic and dark matter

We present a new analytical description of cosmic structure formation in a mixture of dark and baryonic matter, using the framework of Kinetic Field Theory (KFT)—a statistical field theory for classical particle dynamics. So far, KFT has only been able to describe a single type of particles, sufficient to consider structure growth due to the gravitational interactions between dark matter. However, the influence of baryonic gas dynamics becomes increasingly relevant when describing smaller scales. In this paper, we thus demonstrate how to extend the KFT formalism as well as a previously presented resummation scheme towards describing such mixtures of two particle species. Thereby, the gas dynamics of baryons are accounted for using the recently developed model of Mesoscopic Particle Hydrodynamics. Assuming a flat ΛCDM Universe and a simplified model for the thermal gas evolution, we demonstrate the validity of this approach by computing the linear evolution of the individual and total matter power spectra between the epoch of recombination and today. Our results correctly reproduce the expected behaviour, showing a suppression of both baryonic and dark matter structure growth on scales smaller than the baryonic Jeans length, in good agreement with results from the numerical Boltzmann solver CLASS. Nonlinear corrections within this approach will be investigated in upcoming works.

Cosmic Structure Formation with Kinetic Field Theory

AbstractKinetic field theory (KFT) is a statistical field theory for an ensemble of classical point particles in or out of equilibrium. Its application to cosmological structure formation is reviewed. Beginning with the construction of a generating functional, it is described in detail how the theory needs to be adapted to an expanding spatial background and the homogeneous and isotropic, correlated initial conditions for cosmic structures. Based on the generating functional, three approaches are developed to nonlinear cosmic structures, which rest either on expanding an interaction operator, averaging the interaction term, or resumming perturbation terms. An analytic, parameter‐free equation for the nonlinear cosmic power spectrum is presented. It is explained how density profiles of bound structures and velocity power spectra can be derived from the theory. It is clarified how KFT relates to the BBGKY hierarchy. Kinetic field theory is then applied to fluids, reformulating KFT in terms of macroscopic quantities. The resulting resummation scheme is used to describe mixtures of gas and dark matter. Finally, it is discussed how KFT can be combined with modified theories of gravity. As an example for a noncosmological application, results are shown on the spatial correlation function of cold Rydberg atoms derived from KFT.

Kinetic field theory applied to vector-tensor gravity

The formation of cosmic structures is an important diagnostic for both the dynamics of the cosmological model and the underlying theory of gravity. At the linear level of these structures, certain degeneracies remain between different cosmological models and alternative gravity theories. It is thus indispensable to study the non-linear, late-time evolution of cosmic structures to try and disentangle their fundamental properties caused by the cosmological model or gravity theory itself. Conventionally, non-linear cosmic structure formation is studied by means of computationally expensive numerical simulations. Since these inevitably suffer from shot noise and are too time consuming to systematically scrutinize large parameter spaces of cosmological models or fundamental theories, analytical methods are needed to overcome the limitations of numerical simulations.Recently, a new analytic approach to non-linear cosmic structure formation has been proposed based on kinetic field theory for classical particle ensembles. Within this theory, a closed, analytic, non-perturbative and parameter-free equation could be derived for the non-linear power spectrum of cosmic density perturbations which agrees very well with numerically simulated results to wave numbers k≲10hMpc−1 at redshift z=0. In this Letter, we study for the first time the implications of alternative gravity theories for non-linear cosmic structure formation applying this promising new analytic framework. As an illustrative example, we consider vector-tensor theories, which support very interesting isotropic cosmological solutions.

Resummed Kinetic Field Theory: using Mesoscopic Particle Hydrodynamics to describe baryonic matter in a cosmological framework

We present a new analytical description of baryonic matter in a cosmological framework, using the formalism of “Kinetic Field Theory” (KFT)—a statistical field theory approach to structure formation based on the dynamics of classical particles. So far, only the purely gravitational dynamics of dark matter had been considered in KFT, but an accurate description of cosmic structure formation requires to also take into account the baryonic gas dynamics. In this paper, we propose to achieve this by incorporating an effective mesoscopic particle model of hydrodynamics into the recently developed framework of Resummed KFT. Our main result is the baryonic density contrast power spectrum computed to lowest perturbative order, assuming a simplified isothermal fluid model. Compared to the spectrum of dark matter, the baryonic spectrum shows a suppression of power as well as an oscillatory behaviour associated with sound waves on scales smaller than the Jeans length. We further compare our result to the linear spectrum of an isothermal fluid obtained from Eulerian perturbation theory (EPT), finding good quantitative agreement within the approximations we made in the EPT calculation. A subsequent paper will resolve the problem of coupling both dark and baryonic matter, to gain a full model of cosmic matter. Applying the mesoscopic particle approach to more general ideal or viscous fluids will also be subject of upcoming work.

Resummed Kinetic Field Theory: general formalism and linear structure growth from Newtonian particle dynamics

In earlier work, we have developed a nonequilibrium statistical field theory description of cosmic structure formation, dubbed Kinetic Field Theory (KFT), which is based on the Hamiltonian phase-space dynamics of classical particles and thus remains valid beyond shell-crossing. Here, we present an exact reformulation of the KFT framework that allows to resum an infinite subset of terms appearing in the original perturbative expansion of KFT. We develop the general formalism of this resummed KFT, including a diagrammatic language for the resummed perturbation theory, and compute the lowest-order results for the power spectra of the dark matter density contrast and momentum density. This allows us to derive analytically how the linear growth of the largest structures emerges from Newtonian particle dynamics alone, which, to our knowledge, is the first time this has been achieved.

Kinetic field theory: cosmic structure formation and fluctuation-dissipation relations

Building upon the recently developed formalism of Kinetic Field Theory (KFT) for cosmic structure formation by Bartelmann et al, we investigate a kinematic relationship between diffusion and gravitational interactions in cosmic structure formation. In the first part of this work we explain how the process of structure formation in KFT can be separated into three processes, particle diffusion, the accumulation of structure due to initial momentum correlations and interactions relative to the inertial motion of particles. We study these processes by examining the time derivative of the non-linear density power spectrum in the Born approximation. We observe that diffusion and accumulation are delicately balanced because of the Gaussian form of the initial conditions, and that the net diffusion, resulting from adding these two counteracting contributions, approaches the contributions from the interactions in amplitude over time. This hints at a kinematic relation between diffusion and interactions in KFT. Indeed, in the second part, we show that the response of the system to arbitrary gradient forces is directly related to the evolution of particle diffusion in the form of kinematic fluctuation-dissipation relations (FDRs). This result is independent of the interaction potential. We show that this relationship roots in a time-reversal symmetry of the underlying generating functional. Furthermore, our studies demonstrate how FDRs originating from purely kinematic arguments can be used in theories far from equilibrium.

Kinetic field theory: effects of momentum correlations on the cosmic density-fluctuation power spectrum

In earlier work, we have developed a kinetic field theory (KFT) for cosmological structure formation and showed that the nonlinear density-fluctuation power spectrum known from numerical simulations can be reproduced quite well even if particle interactions are taken into account to first order only. Besides approximating gravitational interactions, we had to truncate the initial correlation hierarchy of particle momenta at the second order. Here, we substantially simplify KFT. We show that its central object, the free generating functional, can be factorised, taking the full hierarchy of momentum correlations into account. The factors appearing in the generating functional, which we identify as nonlinearly evolved density-fluctuation power spectra, have a universal form and can thus be tabulated for fast access in perturbation schemes. In this paper, we focus on a complete evaluation of the free generating functional of KFT, not including particle interactions yet. This implies that the nonlinearly evolved power spectra contain a damping term which reflects that structures are being wiped out at late times by free streaming. Once particle interactions will be taken into account, they will compensate this damping. If we suppress this damping in a way suggested by the fluctuation-dissipation relations of KFT, our results show that the complete hierarchy of initial momentum correlations is responsible for a large part of the characteristic nonlinear deformation and the mode transport in the density-fluctuation power spectrum. Without any adjustable parameters, KFT accurately reproduces the scale at which nonlinear evolution sets in. Finally, we further develop perturbation theory based on the factorisation of the generating functional and propose a diagrammatic scheme for the perturbation terms.

Interplay between spin-crossover and magnetic interactions in a BEG model

A two-dimensional Blume-Emery-Griffiths spin-1 model with spin-phonon interaction is introduced to investigate the thermodynamic properties of Prussian Blue Analogs and Spin-crossover materials. The quadrupolar interaction parameter is assumed to depend on the temperature in the form K = αkBT while the crystal-field depends both on the ligand-field strength and the degeneracy ratio between high spin (HS) and low spin (LS) states as in some previous works. The model is solved by means of two statistical-mechanical methods: kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and corrective effective field theory calculations. Our calculations indicate that by tuning α, the spin-crossover transition changes to a sharp first order transition where the HS fraction, nHS changes discontinuously. Second order transitions are observed in the presence of magnetic ordering when the nearest-neighbor coupling constant J exceeds some critical value Jc which depends on α and other model parameters. Below Jc, simple spin-transition occurs at an equilibrium temperature Teq that is very sensitive to the values of the degenaracy ratio and the ligand-field. Competition between model parameters lead to interesting phase diagrams. Some of them are displayed for varying values of the coupling J and also in the specific case where J and K are of the same order of magnitude. Thermal hysteresis loops have been calculated by Monte Carlo simulations and also by using the self-consistent equations in the case of long-lived metastable states showing strong dependence on model parameters.

Fundamental theory of statistical particle dynamics

We present a fundamental theory for the kinetics of systems of classical particles. The theory represents a unification of kinetic theory, Brownian motion, and field theory. It is self-consistent and is the dynamic generalization of the functional theory of fluids in equilibrium. This gives one a powerful tool for investigating the existence of ergodic-nonergodic transitions near the liquid-glass transition.

SURFACE-DIRECTED SPINODAL DECOMPOSITION: LATTICE MODEL VERSUS GINZBURG–LANDAU THEORY

When a binary mixture is quenched into the unstable region of the phase diagram, phase separation starts by spontaneous growth of long-wavelength concentration fluctuations ("spinodal decomposition"). In the presence of surfaces, the latter provide nontrivial boundary conditions for this growth. These boundary conditions can be derived from lattice models by suitable continuum approximations. But the lattice models can also be simulated directly, and thus used to clarify the conditions under which the Ginzburg–Landau type theory is valid. This comparison shows that the latter is accurate only in the immediate vicinity of the bulk critical point, if thermal fluctuations can also be neglected (true for the late stages of phase separation). In contrast, a local kinetic molecular field theory can take full account of nonlinearities and of rapid concentration variations, and thus has a much wider validity. This enables the detailed study of phase separation processes in thin films of solid binary alloys. However, the extension to spinodal decomposition in fluid binary systems (which can be simulated by brute force large scale molecular dynamics methods, of course) remains an unsolved challenge.