Abstract
We develop a formalism to help calculate in quantum field theory the departures from the description of a system by classical field equations. We apply the formalism to a homogeneous condensate with attractive contact interactions and to a homogeneous self-gravitating condensate in critical expansion. In their classical descriptions, such condensates persist forever. We show that in their quantum description, parametric resonance causes quanta to jump in pairs out of the condensate into all modes with wave vector less than some critical value. We calculate, in each case, the time scale over which the homogeneous condensate is depleted and after which a classical description is invalid. We argue that the duration of classicality of inhomogeneous condensates is shorter than that of homogeneous condensates.
- Received 6 October 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.043531
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Published by the American Physical Society