Dynamical renormalization group approach to transport in ultrarelativistic plasmas: The Electrical conductivity in high temperature QED
The DC electrical conductivity of an ultrarelativistic QED plasma is studied in real time by implementing the dynamical renormalization group. The conductivity is obtained from the realtime dependence of a dissipative kernel related to the retarded photon polarization. Pinch singularities in the imaginary part of the polarization are manifest as growing secular terms that in the perturbative expansion of this kernel. The leading secular terms are studied explicitly and it is shown that they are insensitive to the anomalous damping of hard fermions as a result of a cancellation between self-energy and vertex corrections. The resummation of the secular terms via the dynamical renormalization group leads directly to a renormalization group equation in real time, which is the Boltzmann equation for the (gauge invariant) fermion distribution function. A direct correspondence between the perturbative expansion and the linearized Boltzmann equation is established, allowing a direct identification of the self energy and vertex contributions to the collision term.We obtain a Fokker-Planck equation in momentum space that describes the dynamics of the departure from equilibrium to leading logarithmic order in the coupling.This determines that the transport time scale is given by t_{tr}=(24 pi)/[e^4 T \ln(1/e)}]. The solution of the Fokker-Planck equation approaches asymptotically the steady- state solution as sim e^{-t/(4.038 t_{tr})}.The steady-state solution leads to the conductivity sigma = 15.698 T/[e^2 ln(1/e)] to leading logarithmic order. We discuss the contributions beyond leading logarithms as well as beyond the Boltzmann equation. The dynamical renormalization group provides a link between linear response in quantum field theory and kinetic theory.

title: Nonequilibrium relaxation of Bose-Einstein condensates: Real-time equations of motion and Ward identities
abstract: We present a field-theoretical method to obtain consistently the equations of motion for small amplitude condensate perturbations in a homogeneous Bose-condensed gas directly in real time. It is based on a linear response and combines the Schwinger–Keldysh formulation of nonequilibrium quantum field theory with the Nambu–Gor'kov formalism of quasiparticle excitations in the condensed phase and the tadpole method in quantum field theory. This method leads to causal equations of motion that allow us to study the nonequilibrium evolution as an initial value problem. It also allows us to extract directly the Ward identities, which are a consequence of the underlying gauge symmetry and which in equilibrium lead to the Hugenholtz–Pines theorem. An explicit one-loop calculation of the equations of motion beyond the Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov approximation reveals that the nonlocal, absorptive contributions to the self-energies corresponding to the Beliaev and Landau damping processes are necessary to fulfill the Ward identities in or out of equilibrium. It is argued that a consistent implementation at low temperatures must be based on the loop expansion, which is shown to fulfill the Ward identities order by order in perturbation theory.

title: PROGRESS ON CHIRAL SYMMETRY BREAKING IN A STRONG MAGNETIC FIELD
abstract: The problem of chiral symmetry breaking in QED in a strong magnetic field is briefly reviewed. Recent progress on issues regarding the gauge fixing independence of the dynamically generated fermion mass is discussed.

title: Dynamical electron mass in a strong magnetic field
abstract: Motivated by recent interest in understanding properties of strongly magnetized matter, we study the dynamical electron mass generated through approximate chiral symmetry breaking in QED in a strong magnetic field. We reliably calculate the dynamical electron mass by numerically solving the nonperturbative Schwinger-Dyson equations in a consistent truncation within the lowest Landau level approximation. It is shown that the generation of dynamical electron mass in a strong magnetic field is significantly enhanced by the perturbative electron mass that explicitly breaks chiral symmetry in the absence of a magnetic field.

title: REAL-TIME NONEQUILIBRIUM DYNAMICS IN HOT QED PLASMAS
abstract: The quantum kinetics of photons in hot QED plasmas is studied directly in real time by implementing the dynamical renormalization group. In contrast to conventional approach, the dynamical renormalization group method consistently includes off-shell (energy non-conserving) effects and accounts for time-dependent collisional kernel. To lowest order we find that in the relaxation time approximation the semihard photon distribution function relaxes with a power law.

title: Real time nonequilibrium dynamics in hot QED plasmas: Dynamical renormalization group approach
abstract: We study the real-time nonequilibrium dynamics in hot QED plasmas implementing a dynamical renormalization group and using the hard thermal loop (HTL) approximation. The focus is on the study of the relaxation of gauge and fermionic mean fields and on the quantum kinetics of the photon and fermion distribution functions. For semihard photons of momentum eT q \gamma and \bar{q} -> \bar{q}\gamma) at O(\alpha) grows logarithmically in time and is comparable to that produced from on-shell Compton scattering and pair annihilation at O(\alpha \alpha_s). Fermion mean fields relax as e^{-\alpha T t ln(\omega_P t)} with \omega_P=eT/3 the plasma frequency, as a consequence of the emission and absorption of soft magnetic photons. A quantum kinetic equation for hard fermions is obtained directly in real time from a field theoretical approach improved by the dynamical renormalization group. The collision kernel is time-dependent and infrared finite.

title: Plasmoid ejection and secondary current sheet generation from magnetic reconnection in laser-plasma interaction.
abstract: Reconnection of the self-generated magnetic fields in laser-plasma interaction was first investigated experimentally by Nilson et al.  by shining two laser pulses a distance apart on a solid target layer. An elongated current sheet (CS) was observed in the plasma between the two laser spots. In order to more closely model magnetotail reconnection, here two side-by-side thin target layers, instead of a single one, are used. It is found that at one end of the elongated CS a fanlike electron outflow region including three well-collimated electron jets appears. The (>1 MeV) tail of the jet energy distribution exhibits a power-law scaling. The enhanced electron acceleration is attributed to the intense inductive electric field in the narrow electron dominated reconnection region, as well as additional acceleration as they are trapped inside the rapidly moving plasmoid formed in and ejected from the CS. The ejection also induces a secondary CS.

title: Periodicities in Solar Coronal Mass Ejections
abstract: Mid-term quasi-periodicities in solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) during the mostrecent solar maximum cycle 23 are reported here for the ﬁrst time using the four-year data (February 5, 1999 to February 10, 2003) of the Large Angle SpectrometricCoronagraph (LASCO) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Inparallel, mid-term quasi-periodicities in solar X-ray ﬂares (class >M5.0) from theGeosynchronous Operational Environment Satellites (GOES) and in daily averages ofAp index for geomagnetic disturbances from the World Data Center (WDC) at theInternationalAssociation for Geomagnetism andAeronomy (IAGA)are alsoexaminedfor the same four-year time span. By Fourier power spectral analyses, the CME dataappears to contain signiﬁcant power peaks at periods of ∼ 358 ± 38, ∼ 272 ± 26,∼ 196±13 days and so forth, while except for the ∼ 259±24-day period, X-ray solarﬂares of class >∼ M5.0 show the familiar Rieger-type quasi-periods at ∼ 157 ± 11,∼ 122± 5, ∼ 98±3 days and shorter ones until ∼ 34±0.5 days. In the data of dailyaverages of Ap index, the two signiﬁcant peaks at periods ∼ 273±26 and ∼ 187±12days (the latter is most prominent) could imply that CMEs (periods at ∼ 272±26and∼ 196 ± 13 days) may be proportionally correlated with quasi-periodic geomagneticstorm disturbances; at the speculative level, the ∼ 138 ± 6-day period might implythat X-ray ﬂares of class >∼ M5.0 (period at ∼ 157±11 days) may drive certain typesof geomagnetic disturbances; and the ∼ 28±0.2-day periodicity is most likely causedby recurrent high-speed solar winds at the Earth’s magnetosphere. For the same threedata sets, we further perform Morlet wavelet analysis to derive period-time contoursand identify wavelet power peaks and timescales at the 99 percent conﬁdence level forcomparisons. Several conceptual aspects of possible equatorially trapped Rossby-typewaves at and beneath the solar photosphere are discussed. space weather — Sun: activities — corona — coronalmass ejections — magnetic ﬁelds

title: Top quark mass measurement in the lepton + jets channel using a matrix element method and in situ jet energy calibration.
abstract: A precision measurement of the top quark mass m(t) is obtained using a sample of tt events from pp collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron with the CDF II detector. Selected events require an electron or muon, large missing transverse energy, and exactly four high-energy jets, at least one of which is tagged as coming from a b quark. A likelihood is calculated using a matrix element method with quasi-Monte Carlo integration taking into account finite detector resolution and jet mass effects. The event likelihood is a function of m(t) and a parameter Δ(JES) used to calibrate the jet energy scale in situ. Using a total of 1087 events in 5.6 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity, a value of m(t)=173.0 ± 1.2 GeV/c(2) is measured.

title: Track reconstruction using a 3-D map of the target magnetic field
abstract: Magnetic fields are often applied to the target zone of a particle beam to maintain the polarization of gaseous targets, as with the HERMES experiment. The same field bends the trajectories of charged particles, however, introducing errors in vertex reconstruction. This paper describes a method for accurately describing relativistic charged particle transport within a 3-dimensional (3-D), non-uniform magnetic field. The algorithm is tested on HERMES experimental data, and is shown to substantially improve the K s 0 resonance in the π + π - invariant mass spectrum. Indeed, corrected data taken with target magnet switched on are as good as data taken with magnet switched off. The method can easily be applied to other experiments given a 3-D magnetic field map of the target region. The relevant code is provided in an Appendix.

title: Response of the Photospheric Magnetic Field to the X2.2 Flare on 2011 February 15
abstract: It is well known that the long-term evolution of the photospheric magnetic field plays an important role in building up free energy to power solar eruptions. Observations, despite being controversial, have also revealed a rapid and permanent variation of the photospheric magnetic field in response to the coronal magnetic field restructuring during the eruption. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager instrument (HMI) on board the newly launched Solar Dynamics Observatory produces seeing-free full-disk vector magnetograms at consistently high resolution and high cadence, which finally makes possible an unambiguous and comprehensive study of this important back-reaction process. In this study, we present a near disk-center, GOES-class X2.2 flare, which occurred in NOAA AR 11158 on 2011 February 15. Using the magnetic field measurements made by HMI, we obtained the first solid evidence of a rapid (in about 30 minutes) and irreversible enhancement in the horizontal magnetic field at the flaring magnetic polarity inversion line (PIL) by a magnitude of {approx}30%. It is also shown that the photospheric field becomes more sheared and more inclined. This field evolution is unequivocally associated with the flare occurrence in this sigmoidal active region, with the enhancement area located in between the two chromospheric flare ribbons andmore » the initial conjugate hard X-ray footpoints. These results strongly corroborate our previous conjecture that the photospheric magnetic field near the PIL must become more horizontal after eruptions, which could be related to the newly formed low-lying fields resulting from the tether-cutting reconnection.« less