Determining all thermodynamic transport coefficients for an interacting large N quantum field theory

Abstract

Thermodynamic transport coefficients can be calculated directly from quantum field theory without requiring analytic continuation to real time. We determine all second-order thermodynamic transport coefficients for the uncharged N-component massless (critical) scalar field theory with quartic interaction in the large N limit, for any value of the coupling. We find that in the large N limit, all thermodynamic transport coefficients for the interacting theory can be expressed analytically in terms of the in-medium mass and sums over modified Bessel functions. We expect our technique to allow a similar determination of all thermodynamic transport coefficients for all theories that are solvable in the large N limit, including certain gauge theories.

Quantum Field Theory in Large-\(N\) Wonderland: Three Lectures

“…Despite the attractive feature of large-N solvability, applications of large-N techniques for scalar and fermionic theories has remained somewhat dormant since the 1970s. This provides opportunity for using large-N techniques to solve problems of interest, such as calculation of transport coefficients [15][16][17], finite temperature correlators [18,19], finite-density systems [20], as well as real-time evolution in quantum field theory [21].…”