From stochastic phase-space evolution to brownian motion in collective space

Within the framework of stochastic transport equations in phase space, we study the dynamics of fluctuations on collective variables in homogeneous fermion systems. The transport coefficients are formally deduced in the relaxation-time approximation and a general method to compute dynamically the dispersions of collective observables is proposed as a set of coupled equations: respectively, the BUU/Landau-Vlasov equation for the average phase-space trajectories and the equations for the averages and dispersions of the observables. Independently, we derive the general covariance matrix of phase-space fluctuations and then by projection, the dispersion on collective variables at equilibrium. Detailed numerical applications of the formalism are given; they show that the dynamics of fluctuations can be extracted from noisy numerical simulations and that the leading parameter for collective fluctuations is the excitation energy, whatever is its degree of thermalization. (orig.)