Parametric resonance in quantum field theory

J. Berges, J. Serreau

Published 2002-08-07, updated 2003-07-09Version 2

We present the first study of parametric resonance in quantum field theory from a complete next-to-leading order calculation in a 1/N-expansion of the 2PI effective action, which includes scattering and memory effects. We present a complete numerical solution for an O(N)-symmetric scalar theory and provide an approximate analytic description of the nonlinear dynamics in the entire amplification range. We find that the classical resonant amplification at early times is followed by a collective amplification regime with explosive particle production in a broad momentum range, which is not accessible in a leading-order calculation.