Thermally induced photon splitting

Abstract

We calculate thermal corrections to the non-linear QED effective action for low-energy photon interactions in a background electromagnetic field. The high-temperature expansion shows that at $T\gg m$ the vacuum contribution is exactly cancelled to all orders in the external field except for a non-trivial two-point function contribution. The high-temperature expansion derived reveals a remarkable cancellation of infrared sensitive contributions. As a result photon-splitting in the presence of a magnetic field is suppressed in the presence of an electron-positron QED-plasma at very high temperatures. In a cold and dense plasma a similar suppression takes place. At the same time Compton scattering dominates for weak fields and the suppression is rarely important in physical situations.

15 pages, 2 ps figures, Latex