Thermal reaction processes in a relativistic QED plasma drop
Abstract
The equilibrium size and temperature limits of thermally and chemically equilibrated 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.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0911.0118,
title = {Thermal reaction processes in a relativistic QED plasma drop},
author = {Inga Kuznetsova and Dieter Habs and Johann Rafelski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0911.0118},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
15 pages, 10 figures, version is updated to be the same as in PRD in press