We examine the relation between the damping rate of a fermionic mode propagating in a hot QED or QCD plasma, and the corresponding reaction rate. We show that these two quantities should be equal provided the reaction rate is calculated using properly normalized wave functions for the mode in the medium. We use finite temperature cutting rules to identify the different terms in the expression for the damping rate with physical processes in the plasma.
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© 1999 American Institute of Physics.
1999
American Institute of Physics
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