Nonequilibrium Physics at Short Time Scales: Formation of Correlations

This book is the result of the many discussions and collaborations that de­ veloped from the seven previous workshops held on this topic. This ongoing series of interdisciplinary workshops provided an opportunity for the presen­ tation and exchange of results describing nonequilibrium phenomena at short time scales. The important questions concern the correlation and memory ef­ fects in dense interacting systems currently under study in various areas of physics. Experiments on very short time scales are especially characterized by the strong correlations in systems far from equilibrium and by their non­ linear dynamics. In this regard, conventionally applied theoretical techniques are critically reviewed, and new theoretical concepts are discussed. Possible signals of nonequilibrium effects are extracted from experiments using power­ ful techniques and skills. The exchange of views and techniques from different areas of physics helped to stimulate such developments. The impressive success of experiments using short laser pulses to probe the properties of matter, as well as of the new methods of analysis of the early phases of heavy ion reactions, initiated a review of the available many body theoretical methods. These statistical methods describing strong nonequilib­ rium situations were known, at least partially, for a long time. However, recent developments in computing power have provided the possibility of accurately comparing ab initio and approximate methods.

Table of Contents:
I Quantum Statistical Approaches to Correlations.- Quantum Many-Body Theory and Coherent Potential Approximation.- Cluster Transfer Matrix Method: A novel Many-Body Technique in Nanoelectronics.- Dynamical Properties of Quantum Systems.- Variational Approaches to the Dynamics of Mixed Quantum States.- Thermal Non-analyticity in the Damping Rate of a Massive Fermion.- Second Law of Thermodynamics, but Without a Thermodynamic Limit.- II Description of Nonequilibrium Correlations.- Isothermal Molecular Dynamics in Classical and Quantum Mechanics.- Non-local Kinetic Theory.- Collisional Absorption of Laser Radiation in a Strongly Correlated Plasma.- Correlations and Equilibration in Relativistic Quantum Systems.- Consequences of Kinetic Nonequilibrium for the Nuclear Equation-of-state in Heavy Ion Collisions.- III Response to Short Laser Pulses in Semiconductors Ultrafast Spectroscopy in the Quantum Hall Regime.- Ultrafast Formation of Quasiparticles in Semiconductors: How Bare Charges Get Dressed.- Self-Consistent Projection Operator Theory of Intersubband Absorbance in Semiconductor Quantum Wells.- Disorder Induced e—h Correlation in Photoexcited Transients in Semiconductors.- Excitonic Correlations in the Nonlinear Optical Response of Two-dimensional Semiconductor Microstructures: A Nonequilibrium Green’s Function Approach.- Cluster Expansion in Semiconductor Quantum Optics.- IV Correlations and Dynamics Clusters and Nuclei.- Analysis of Cluster Dynamics.- Short Time-Scale Electron Kinetics in Bulk Metals and Metal Clusters.- Origin of the Pseudogap in High Temperature Superconductors.- Electric Fields in Superconductors.- Cluster Emission in Complex Nuclear Reactions.- Correlations in Finite Systems and Their Universal Scaling Properties.- Fluctuations andInstabilities in Nuclear Dynamics: from Multifragmentation to Neutron Stars.