Gauge independence and relativistic dispersion equations in statistical QED

Abstract

We discuss the gauge parameter dependence of particle spectra in statistical quantum electrodynamics and conclude that the electron spectrum is gaugeparameter dependent. The physical spectrum being obtained in the Landau gauge, which leads to gauge invariance in a restricted class of gauge transformations. We compute the thermal self-energy of electrons in a dense media to first order in the fine structure constant. In the zero-temperature limit and at high density the dispersion equation is solved for some gauges, the curves differing from that corresponding to the physical transverse gauge.

Advances in perturbative thermal field theory

“…There have also been investigations of how the HTL dispersion laws of fermions as well as gauge bosons are affected by retaining non-leading powers of temperature [234,235] and chemical potential [236][237][238][239]. These also emphasize the need for higher-loop contributions to obtain complete, gauge-independent results.…”