Generalised BBGKY hierarchy for near-integrable dynamics

Abstract

We consider quantum or classical many-body Hamiltonian systems, whose dynamics is given by an integrable, contact interactions, plus another, possibly long-range, generic two-body potential. We show how the dynamics of local observables is given in terms of a generalised version of Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon hierarchy, which we denote as gBBGKY, which is built for the densities, and their correlations, of the quasiparticles of the underlying integrable model. Unlike the usual cases of perturbation theory from free gases, the presence of local interactions in the integrable model "lifts" the so-called kinetic blocking, and the second layer of the hierarchy reproduces the dynamics at all time-scales. The latter consists of a fast pre-equilibration to a non-thermal steady state, and its subsequent thermalisation to a Gibbs ensemble. We show how the final relaxation is encoded into a Boltzmann scattering integral involving three or higher body-scatterings, and which, remarkably, is entirely determined by the diffusion constants of the underlying integrable model. We check our results with exact molecular dynamics simulations, finding perfect agreement. Our results show how gBBGKY can be successfully employed in quantum systems to compute scattering integrals and Fermi's golden rule transition rates.