BPS Explained II: Calculating the Equilibration Rate in the Extreme Quantum Limit

Abstract

This is the second in a series of two lectures on the technique of dimensional continuation, a new method for analytically calculating certain energy transport quantities in a weakly to moderately coupled plasma. Recently, this method was employed by Brown, Preston, and Singleton (BPS) to calculate the electron-ion temperature equilibration rate and the charged particle stopping power to leading and next-to-leading order in the plasma coupling. In this lecture, I develop the framework further, and then explicitly calculate the electron-ion temperature equilibration rate in the high temperature limit. This method captures all short and long distance physics to second order in the plasma coupling. This analytic perturbative technique is applicable for ignition in inertial confinement fusion and for other processes in hot a weakly coupled plasma.