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Equilibration of the chiral asymmetry due to finite electron mass in electron-positron plasma.
- Source :
-
Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation & Cosmology . 1/1/2021, Vol. 103 Issue 1, p1-1. 1p. - Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- We calculate the rate of collisional decay of the axial charge in an ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasma, also known as the chirality flipping rate. We find that contrary to the existing estimates, the chirality flipping rate appears already in the first order in the fine-structure constant α and is therefore orders of magnitude greater than previously believed. The main channels for the rapid relaxation of the axial charge are the collinear emission of a weakly damped photon and the Compton scattering. The latter contributes to the O(α) result because of the infrared divergence in its cross section, which is regularized on the soft scale ∼eT due to the thermal corrections. Our results are important for the description of the early Universe processes (such as leptogenesis or magnetogenesis) that affect differently left- and right-chiral fermions of the Standard Model, as discussed in more details in the companion Letter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 24700010
- Volume :
- 103
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation & Cosmology
- Publication Type :
- Periodical
- Accession number :
- 160230309
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.013003