Finite temperature corrections to weak rates prior to nucleosynthesis

Abstract

We have reexamined the electromagnetic corrections to the weak interaction rates for the transformation of neutrons to protons, and protons to neutrons, in the early universe, before freeze-out. We derive compact expressions for these rates in terms of thermal expectation values of products of fields, and we give explicit constructions of the terms to order e^2. We disagree in several respects with results in the literature.

Comments: 38 pages, 3 figures Two typos corrected