Kinetic theory of a longitudinally expanding system of scalar particles

A simple kinematical argument suggests that the classical approximation may be inadequate to describe the evolution of a system with an anisotropic particle distribution. In order to verify this quantitatively, we study the Boltzmann equation for a longitudinally expanding system of scalar particles interacting with a ϕ⁴ coupling, that mimics the kinematics of a heavy ion collision at very high energy. We consider only elastic 2→2 scatterings, and we allow the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate in overpopulated situations by solving the coupled equations for the particle distribution and the particle density in the zero mode. For generic CGC-like initial conditions with a large occupation number, the solutions of the full Boltzmann equation cease to display the classical attractor behavior sooner than expected; for moderate coupling, the solutions appear never to follow a classical attractor solution.