Quantum-classical crossover in critical dynamics

Abstract

The stochastic quantization of Nelson is extended to the finite-temperature equilibrium states and is applied to the study of the quantum effects in the critical dynamics of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model in the large-$n$ limit. A temperature-dependent (non-Markovian) stochastic process for the order parameter is derived which contains the crossover from the ground-state dynamics dominated by the quantum fluctuations, to classical critical dynamics in the neighborhood of the finite-temperature critical points. The crossover is exhibited by means of the effective dynamical critical exponent.