In: Physics
What is the quantum Boltzmann equation? What does it describe and what is the actual equation?
What is the quantum Boltzmann equation?
The quantum Boltzmann equation, or Fokker-Planck equation, has been used to successfully explain a number of experiments in semiconductor optics in the past two decades.
What does it describe?
The quantum Boltzmann equation describes the time
evolution of a dilute Bose
gas or Fermi gas.
what is the actual equation?
The general equation can then be written:
where the "force" term corresponds to the forces exerted on the particles by an external influence (not by the particles themselves), the "diff" term represents the diffusion of particles, and "coll" is the collision term - accounting for the forces acting between particles in collisions. Expressions for each term on the right side are provided below.
Note that some authors use the particle velocity v instead of momentum p; they are related in the definition of momentum byp = mv.