Spectral Functions and Transport Coefficients from the Functional Renormalization Group

In this thesis we present a new method to obtain real-time quantities like spectral functions and transport coefficients at finite temperature and density using the Functional Renormalization Group approach. Our non-perturbative method is thermodynamically consistent, symmetry preserving and based on an analytic continuation from imaginary to real time on the level of the flow equations. We demonstrate the applicability of this method by calculating mesonic spectral functions as well as the shear viscosity for the quark-meson model. In particular, results are presented for the pion and sigma spectral function at finite temperature and chemical potential, with a focus on the regime near the critical endpoint in the phase diagram of the quark-meson model. Moreover, the different time-like and space-like processes, which give rise to a complex structure of the spectral functions, are discussed. Finally, based on the momentum dependence of the spectral functions, we calculate the shear viscosity and the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio using the corresponding Green-Kubo formula