Some aspects of particle physics in thermal background

Abstract

The work in this thesis uses the formalism of thermal field theory. The major problem considered by us is the gravitational interaction of charged leptons in a medium. Working in the context of the linearized theory of gravity, we have deduced general expressions for the matter-induced $O(\alpha)$ corrections to the gravitational mass in normal matter background which contains electrons but not the other charged leptons. Explicit formulas are then given for the corrections in terms of the macroscopic parameters of the medium for a few special cases of the background gases. In the last part of the thesis, we have considered high-temperature, massless QED at zero chemical potential. We have investigated the gauge independence of the one-loop electron dispersion relation, taking subleading temperature dependence into account.