Current Conservation in Thermal Field Theory

Abstract

Within the framework of generalized free field theory at nonzero temperature we address the problem of current conservation. The formalism of thermo field dynamics is used to derive a conserved and thermodynamically consistent physical current operator. Consequences for the calculation of photon emission rates from a hot plasma are considered briefly.

Comments: 7 pages, revtex, no figures, fully available at ftp://tpri6c.gsi.de/pub/phenning/h95curc/ and get h95curc.*