Field mixing in a thermal medium: A quantum master equation approach

Abstract: We studied the nonequilibrium dynamics of the indirect mixing of two (pseudo-)scalar fields induced by their couplings to common decay channels in a medium. The effective non-Markovian quantum master equation (QME) for the two fields' reduced density matrix is derived to leading order in the couplings of the two fields with the medium, but to all orders of the couplings among degrees of freedom in the medium. The self-energy and noise-kernel in the QME satisfy a fluctuation-dissipation relation. The solutions show that an initial expectation value (condensate) of one field induces a condensate of the other field through the indirect mixing and that the populations and coherence of the two fields thermalize and approach to non-vanishing values asymptotically. The nearly-degenerate field masses and coupling strengths resonantly enhance the quantum beats and asymptotic coherence, and induce a prominent dynamics of the vacuum after the switch-on of the couplings. We argue that a time-dependent definitions of particles due to the changing vacuum must be introduced so as to obtain results consistent with the calculations of equilibrium states in the asymptotic limit. A coupling strength hierarchy breaks down the resonant enhancement in the nearly-degenerate case but leads to different power countings of the coupling strengths in the magnitudes of the observables and time-scales in the evolution, suggesting the possibility of detecting extremely long-lived particles using prepared short-lived particles within a practical experimental period.