Spontaneous symmetry breaking is an essential feature of modern science. We demonstrate that it also plays an important role in the physics of complex plasmas. Complex plasmas can serve as a powerful tool for observing and studying discrete types of
symmetry and disordering at the kinetic level that numerous many-body systems exhibit.
Ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas can be produced in high-intensity laser fields and play a role in various astrophysical situations. Their properties can be calculated using QED at finite temperature. Here we will use perturbative QED at f
inite temperature for calculating various important properties, such as the equation of state, dispersion relations of collective plasma modes of photons and electrons, Debye screening, damping rates, mean free paths, collision times, transport coefficients, and particle production rates, of ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas. In particular, we will focus on electron-positron plasmas produced with ultra-strong lasers.
Ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas can be produced in high-intensity laser fields and play a role in various astrophysical situations. Their properties can be calculated using QED at finite temperature. Here we will use perturbative QED at f
inite temperature for calculating various important properties, such as the equation of state, dispersion relations of collective plasma modes of photons and electrons, Debye screening, damping rates, mean free paths, collision times, transport coefficients, and particle production rates, of ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas. In particular, we will focus on electron-positron plasmas produced with ultra-strong lasers.
Ultra-relativistic electromagnetic plasmas can be used for improving our understanding of the quark-gluon plasma. In the weakly coupled regime both plasmas can be described by transport theoretical and quantum field theoretical methods leading to sim
ilar results for the plasma properties (dielectric tensor, dispersion relations, plasma frequency, Debye screening, transport coefficients, damping and particle production rates). In particular, future experiments with ultra-relativistic electron-positron plasmas in ultra-strong laser fields might open the possibility to test these predictions, e.g. the existence of a new fermionic plasma wave (plasmino). In the strongly coupled regime electromagnetic plasmas such as complex plasmas can be used as models or at least analogies for the quark-gluon plasma possibly produced in relativistic heavy-ion experiments. For example, pair correlation functions can be used to investigate the equation of state and cross section enhancement for parton scattering can be explained.
String theoretical arguments led to the hypothesis that the ratio of viscosity to entropy of any physical system has a lower bound. Strongly coupled systems usually have a small viscosity compared to weakly coupled plasmas in which the viscosity is p
roportional to the mean free path. In the case of a one-component plasma the viscosity as a function of the coupling strength shows a minimum. Here we show that the ratio of viscosity to entropy of a strongly coupled one-component plasma is always above the lower bound predicted by string theory.
