Spin evolution of massive fermion in QED plasma

Understand

The dynamical evolution of spin of a massive probe fermion in a massless hot QED plasma at local equilibrium is investigated through the quantum kinetic theory.

• We consider the massive probe fermion undergoing 2-by-2 Coulomb scattering with the massless fermions in the medium.
• The axial kinetic equation is derived including the collision terms to the first order of gradients and leading logarithmic order of the coupling.
• The collision terms are vanishing at global equilibrium, around which the relaxation time can be extracted as an operator.