Biomedical subjects

C Wetterich

Publications and source records attributed to C Wetterich.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Spontaneous symmetry breaking origin for the difference between time and space.

We suggest that the difference between time and space is due to spontaneous symmetry breaking. In a theory with spinors the signature of the metric is related to the signature of the Lorentz group. We discuss a higher symmetry that contains pseudo-orthogonal groups with an arbitrary signature as subgroups. The fundamental asymmetry between time and space can then result as a property of the ground state rather than being put into the formulation of the theory a priori. We show how the complex structure of quantum field theory as well as gravitational field equations arise from spinor gravity--a fundamental spinor theory without a metric.

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PubMed2004

Prethermalization.

Prethermalization of the equation of state and the kinetic temperature to their equilibrium values occurs on time scales dramatically shorter than the thermal equilibration time. This is a crucial ingredient for the understanding of collisions of heavy nuclei or other nonequilibrium phenomena in complex quantum and classical many body systems. We also compare the chemical equilibration time with other characteristic time scales.

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PubMed2001

Phase transitions in liquid 3He.

The phase transitions of liquid 3He are described by truncations of an exact nonperturbative renormalization group equation. The location of the first-order transition lines and the jump in the order parameter are computed quantitatively. At the triple point we find indications of partially universal behavior. We suggest experiments that could help to determine the effective interactions between fermion pairs.

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PubMed2001

Critical exponents of the Gross-Neveu model from the effective average action.

The phase transition of the Gross-Neveu model with N fermions is investigated by means of a nonperturbative evolution equation for the scale dependence of the effective average action. The critical exponents and scaling amplitudes are calculated for various values of N in d = 3. It is also explicitly verified that the Neveu-Yukawa model belongs to the same universality class as the Gross-Neveu model.

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PubMed2001

Unique Translation between Hamiltonian Operators and Functional Integrals.

A careful treatment of the discretization errors in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics leads to a unique prescription for the translation from the Hamiltonian to the action in the functional integral. An example is given by an interaction quadratic in the occupation number, characteristic for many body bosonic systems. As a result, the term linear in the occupation number (chemical potential) receives a correction as compared to the usual formulation based on coherent states. A perturbative calculation supports the relevance of this correction.

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PubMed2000

Quintessential adjustment of the cosmological constant

We construct a time dependent adjustment mechanism for the cosmological "constant" which could be at work in a late Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe dominated by quintessence and matter. It makes use of a Brans-Dicke field that couples to the evolving standard-model vacuum energy density. Our explicit model possesses a stable late-time solution with a fixed ratio of matter and field energy densities. No fine-tuning of model parameters or initial conditions is required.

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PubMed1996