QED effective action at finite temperature

Holger Gies
Phys. Rev. D 60, 105002 – Published 1 October 1999
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Abstract

The QED effective Lagrangian in the presence of an arbitrary constant electromagnetic background field at finite temperature is derived in the imaginary-time formalism to one-loop order. The boundary conditions in imaginary time reduce the set of gauge transformations of the background field, which allows for a further gauge invariant and puts restrictions on the choice of gauge. The additional invariant enters the effective action by a topological mechanism and can be identified with a chemical potential; it is furthermore related to Debye screening. In concordance with the real-time formalism, we do not find a thermal correction to Schwinger’s pair-production formula. The calculation is performed on a maximally Lorentz covariant and gauge invariant stage.

  • Received 14 December 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.60.105002

©1999 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Holger Gies*

  • Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany

  • *Email address: holger.gies@uni-tuebingen.de

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Vol. 60, Iss. 10 — 15 November 1999

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