Time propagation of the Kadanoff-Baym equations for inhomogeneous systems

We have developed a time-propagation scheme for the Kadanoff-Baym equations for general inhomogeneous systems. These equations describe the time evolution of the nonequilibrium Green function for interacting many-body systems in the presence of time-dependent external fields. The external fields are treated nonperturbatively whereas the many-body interactions are incorporated perturbatively using Phi-derivable self-energy approximations that guarantee the satisfaction of the macroscopic conservation laws of the system. These approximations are discussed in detail for the time-dependent Hartree-Fock, the second Born, and the GW approximation. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3127247]