CaltechAUTHORS
Published January 26, 2012 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Charged-particle decay at finite temperature

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Alberta
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 3. ROR icon Johns Hopkins University

Abstract

Radiative corrections to the decay rate of charged fermions caused by the presence of a thermal bath of photons are calculated in the limit when temperatures are below the masses of all charged particles involved. The cancellation of finite-temperature infrared divergences in the decay rate is described in detail. Temperature-dependent radiative corrections to a two-body decay of a hypothetical charged fermion and to electroweak decays of a muon μ→eν_μν̅_e are given. We touch upon possible implications of these results for charged particles in the early Universe.

Additional Information

© 2012 American Physical Society. Received 17 October 2011; published 26 January 2012. This research was supported at Alberta by Science and Engineering Research Canada (NSERC), at JHU by the NSF Grant No. PHY-0855365 and JHU startup funds, and at Caltech by DOE DE-FG03-92-ER40701, NASA NNX10AD04G, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

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Published - Czarnecki2012p17335Phys_Rev_D.pdf

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Czarnecki2012p17335Phys_Rev_D.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
29580
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20120306-065630130

Funding

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
NSF
PHY-0855365
Department of Energy (DOE)
DE-FG03-92-ER40701
NASA
NNX10AD04G
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Johns Hopkins University

Dates

Created
2012-03-13
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-09
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
TAPIR , Moore Center for Theoretical Cosmology and Physics