We use the so-called Liouville–von Neumann (LvN) approach to study the nonequilibrium quantum dynamics of time-dependent second order phase transitions. The LvN approach is a canonical method that unifies the functional Schrödinger equation for the quantum evolution of pure states and the LvN equation for the quantum description of mixed states of either equilibrium or nonequilibrium. As nonequilibrium quantum mechanical systems we study a time-dependent harmonic and an anharmonic oscillator and find the exact Fock space and density operator for the harmonic oscillator and the nonperturbative Gaussian Fock space and density operator for the anharmonic oscillator. The density matrix and the coherent, thermal, and coherent-thermal states are found in terms of their classical solutions, for which the effective Hamiltonians and equations of motion are derived. The LvN approach is further extended to quantum fields undergoing time-dependent second order phase transitions. We study an exactly solvable model with a finite smooth quench and find the two-point correlation functions. Because of the spinodal instability of long wavelength modes, the two-point correlation functions lead to the $t^{1/4}$-scaling relation during the quench and the Cahn-Allen scaling relation $t^{1/2}$ after completion of the quench. Further, after the finite quench the domain formation shows a time-lag behavior at the cubic power of the quench period. Finally we study the time-dependent phase transition of a self-interacting scalar field.

• Received 23 May 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.62.125020