Decay of a Yukawa fermion at finite temperature and applications to leptogenesis

Journal Article · Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.82.036007· OSTI ID:21432917

Kiessig, Clemens P; Pluemacher, Michael ^[1]; Thoma, Markus H ^[2]

---

1. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut), Foehringer Ring 6, D-80805 Muenchen (Germany)
2. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, D-85748 Garching (Germany)

We calculate the decay rate of a Yukawa fermion in a thermal bath using finite-temperature cutting rules and effective Green's functions according to the hard thermal loop resummation technique. We apply this result to the decay of a heavy Majorana neutrino in leptogenesis. Compared to the usual approach where thermal masses are inserted into the kinematics of final states, we find that deviations arise through two different leptonic dispersion relations. The decay rate differs from the usual approach by more than 1 order of magnitude in the temperature range which is interesting for the weak washout regime. We discuss how to arrive at consistent finite-temperature treatments of leptogenesis.

• OSTI ID: 21432917
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 82, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.82.036007; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DISPERSION RELATIONS
FERMIONS
GREEN FUNCTION
LEPTONS
MAJORANA THEORY
MASS
NEUTRINOS
PARTICLE DECAY
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
YUKAWA POTENTIAL
DECAY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FUNCTIONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
NUCLEAR POTENTIAL
POTENTIALS
SIMULATION