Three-loop HTL Free Energy for QED
Jun, 2009
Citations per year
Abstract: (arXiv)
We calculate the free energy of a hot gas of electrons and photons to three loops using the hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory reorganization of finite-temperature perturbation theory. We calculate the free energy through three loops by expanding in a power series in m_D/T, m_f/T, and e^2, where m_D and m_f are thermal masses and e is the coupling constant. We demonstrate that the hard-thermal-loop perturbation reorganization improves the convergence of the successive approximations to the QED free energy at large coupling, e ~ 2. The reorganization is gauge invariant by construction, and due to cancellation among various contributions, we obtain a completely analytic result for the resummed thermodynamic potential at three loops. Finally, we compare our result with similar calculations that use the Phi-derivable approach.- 04.25.Nx
- 11.10.Wx
- 11.15.Bt
- 12.38.Mh
- quantum electrodynamics
- electron: gas
- photon: gas
- free energy
- hard thermal loop approximation
- perturbation theory: higher-order
References(38)
Figures(11)