Kinetics of Degenerate Electron–Positron Plasmas
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The presented analysis of the nonequilibrium relativistic electron-positron plasma seems to be an important and useful as an addition to the description of phenomena in strong and superstrong electromagnetic fields. The authors consider in sufficient detail both the method of analysis and the consequences resulting from taking into account essentially quantum effects in the kinetic equations. It would be interesting, as it seems to me, to discuss also in more detail how the pedicted new phenomena could affect the processes occurring near gravitationally bound objects which are located in strong electromagnetic fields - for example, processes of scattering of particles from plasma (photons and/or electrons) on dark matter objects. It seems, reactions of the DM annihilation can be somewhat affected by the plasma neighboring or surrounding. This question is, however, beyond the framework of the paper.
In any case, the work is absolutely suitable for publication in a journal "Universe".
Author Response
We thank the referee for the report.
Referee states:
It would be interesting, as it seems to me, to discuss also in more detail how the predicted new phenomena could affect the processes occurring near gravitationally bound objects which are located in strong electromagnetic fields - for example, processes of scattering of particles from plasma (photons and/or electrons) on dark matter objects.
Our reply: This discussion is added in conclusions, marked in bold.
Reviewer 2 Report
This is a high qualify manuscript about the kinetics of degenerate electron-positron plasmas. The author make a clear statements of relativistic kinetic equations, which is essential for relate research area.
Here are my suggestions:
1. In figure 1, please add labels of curves. In addition, I recommend that adding a short paragraph or couple sentences to explain why the red curve approaching black one after rho > 10^24.
2. In figure 2, please add theta labels on the figure.
3. I don't understand the pair production and annihilation state you listed in table I. Would you please educate me why that term is important?
4. In figure 3, please add labels on the figure.
5. In figure 5, the X- and Y-axis labels are very difficult to read. Please replace with larger font size.
6. In figure 6, I see the sharp decreasing and increasing between 10^-19 to 10^-18 second. My understanding is that would be dots line rather than A continuous curve since no evidence to prove the continuity of it.
Author Response
We thank the referee for the report.
Referee states:
- In figure 1, please add labels of curves. In addition, I recommend that adding a short paragraph or couple sentences to explain why the red curve approaching black one after rho > 10^24.
Our reply: This is done, the sentence is added, marked in bold.
Referee states:
- In figure 2, please add theta labels on the figure.
Our reply: This is done.
Referee states:
- I don't understand the pair production and annihilation state you listed in table I. Would you please educate me why that term is important?
Our reply: All reactions mentioned in the Table 1 are taken into account in our calculation by appropriate integration over the phase space of participating particles of the matrix elements obtained from QED. For instance, the corresponding QED matrix elements for pair production and pair annihilation into two photons can be found in standard textbooks, e.g. Ref. [53].
Referee states:
- In figure 3, please add labels on the figure.
Our reply: This is done.
Referee states:
- In figure 5, the X- and Y-axis labels are very difficult to read. Please replace with larger font size.
Our reply: This is done.
Referee states:
- In figure 6, I see the sharp decreasing and increasing between 10^-19 to 10^-18 second. My understanding is that would be dots line rather than A continuous curve since no evidence to prove the continuity of it.
Our reply: This sharp change in number densities of pairs and photons is the new feature discovered in Ref [82], now inserted in the literature list, which we called avalanche thermalization. Due to logarithmic scale of the plot time of the figure the decrease appears sharp, but it is perfectly continuous.
Reviewer 3 Report
This review is compactly described. In this review only Thompson cross section is used. However, Klein-Nishina formula may be necessary for very high energy level. Line 190 needs to be corrected. I wonder if Bolzmann-Vlason simulation can be performed instead of solving 2-particle QED interaction.
Author Response
We thank the referee for the report.
Referee states:
In this review only Thompson cross section is used. However, Klein-Nishina formula may be necessary for very high energy level.
Our reply: Actually full QED matrix elements are used for the Compton scattering process (and not only), which ensures correct behavior of the reaction rates at high energies, including the Klein-Nishina limit.
Referee states:
Line 190 needs to be corrected.
Our reply: Done.
Referee states:
I wonder if Bolzmann-Vlason simulation can be performed instead of solving 2-particle QED interaction.
Our reply: The Bolzmann-Vlasov simulation is indeed performed in the case when external fields play important role, see Section 6.
