Correlation Induced Heating and Cooling of Many-Body Systems

Theoretical investigations of the short-time behavior of many-body systems have shown significant deviations from kinetic energy conservation which is typically assumed in conventional kinetic theory^{1 - 4}. We analyze the requirements on the initial state which lead to heating or cooling, respectively. In particular, we investigate the relaxation after changes in the interaction potential. The theoretical results are complemented by quantum kinetics and molecular dynamics simulations. We discuss the possibility to prepare an overcorrelated state and calculate the temperature reduction.