APEC Lecture Series

Speaker: Joao Rosa (Aveiro U)
Title: Non-equilibrium Quantum Field Theory and cosmological applications
Date (JST): Tue, Feb 10, 2015, 15:30 - 17:00
Place: Seminar Room B
Abstract: This is a set of introductory lectures on non-equilibrium Quantum Field Theory and its applications in cosmological scenarios. I will focus on describing how the interactions between a system and its environment lead to dissipative effects and associated fluctuations, which are fully encoded in a generic Langevin-like equation. First, I will discuss how this arises in the context of a simple quantum mechanical model and then move on to give a full description of these effects in Quantum Field Theory, using the real-time Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. I will give simple examples of dissipation coefficients for scalar interactions and use them to discuss how the effects of dissipation and fluctuations modify the dynamics of cosmological scalar fields, particularly in the context of warm inflation.
Remarks: Three 90-min lectures (3:30PM - 5PM, Friday 2/6, Monday 2/9, Tuesday 2/10 @ Seminar room B)