Thermal reaction processes in a relativistic QED plasma drop

Inga Kuznetsova, Dieter Habs, Johann Rafelski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The equilibrium size and temperature limits of thermally and chemically equilibrated e+e-γ plasma drops are investigated at a given energy content. For a plasma to be equilibrated it must be opaque to electron and photon interactions. The opaqueness condition is determined by comparing plasma size with the mean free electron and photon paths. We calculate those paths using thermal Lorentz-invariant reaction rates for pair production and electron (positron) and photon scattering. The range of the corresponding plasma temperature and size is evaluated numerically. Considering the energy and size we find that the opaque and equilibrated plasma drop may be experimentally attainable.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number053007
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume81
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 18 2010

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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