Dispersion Relations in Ultradegenerate Relativistic Plasmas

Abstract

The propagation of excitation modes in a relativistic ultradegenerate plasma is modified by their interactions with the medium. These modifications can be computed by evaluating their on-shell self-energy, which gives (gauge-independent) dispersion relations. For modes with momentum close to the Fermi momentum, the one-loop fermion self-energy is dominated by a diagram with a soft photon in the loop. We find the one-loop dispersion relations for quasiparticles and antiquasiparticles, which behave differently as a consequence of their very different phase-space restrictions when they scatter with the electrons of the Fermi sea. In a relativistic system, the unscreened magnetic interactions spoil the normal Fermi liquid behavior of the plasma. For small values of the Fermi velocity, we recover the non-relativistic dispersion relations of condensed matter systems.

Comments: 14 pages; some comments on the helicities of the particles added; accepted for publication in PRD