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Lifetimes of quasiparticles and collective excitations in hot QED plasmas

Journal Article · · Physical Review, D
;  [1]
  1. Service de Physique Theorique, CE-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
The perturbative calculation of the lifetime of fermion excitations in a QED plasma at high temperature is plagued with infrared divergences which are not eliminated by the screening corrections. The physical processes responsible for these divergences are the collisions involving the exchange of long wavelength, quasistatic, magnetic photons, which are not screened by plasma effects. The leading divergences can be resummed in a nonperturbative treatment based on a generalization of the Bloch-Nordsieck (BN) model at finite temperature. The resulting expression of the fermion propagator is free of infrared problems, and exhibits a nonexponential damping at large times: S{sub R}(t){approximately}exp{l_brace}{minus}{alpha}Ttln{omega}{sub p}t{r_brace}, where {omega}{sub p}=eT/3 is the plasma frequency and {alpha}=e{sup 2}/4{pi}. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
OSTI ID:
471240
Journal Information:
Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 55; ISSN 0556-2821; ISSN PRVDAQ
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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