Remarks on the Coulomb and Covariant Gauges in Finite Temperature QED

We compare the use of the Coulomb gauge in finite temperature QED with a recently proposed prescription for covariant gauges, in which only the transverse photon degrees of freedom are thermalized. Using the Landau rule as a guide, we clarify the relation between the retarded electron self-energy and the elements of the self-energy matrix in the real-time formulation of . The general results are illustrated by means of the one-loop expressions for the electron self-energy in a QED plasma.Comment: LaTeX, 10 pages, no figures; to be published in Phys. Lett.

Cherenkov radiation by massless neutrinos

Due to their weak interactions, neutrinos can polarize a medium and acquire an induced charge. We consider the Cherenkov radiation emitted by neutrinos due to their effective electromagnetic interactions as they pass through a polarizable medium. The effect exists even for massless, chiral neutrinos, where no physics beyond the standard model needs to be assumed.Comment: 11 pages Latex file; to appear in Phys. Lett.