Classical limit for semirelativistic Hartree systems

Abstract

We consider the three-dimensional semirelativistic Hartree model for fast quantum mechanical particles moving in a self-consistent field. Under appropriate assumptions on the initial density matrix as a (fully) mixed quantum state we prove by using Wigner transformation techniques that its classical limit yields the well known relativistic Vlasov-Poisson system. The result holds for the case of attractive and repulsive mean-field interactions, with an additional size constraint in the attractive case. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.