THE SPECIFIC HEAT OF A FERMI GAS AT LOW TEMPERATURE: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE lnT BEHAVIOR

Abstract

At finite temperature, a Fermi gas can have states that simultaneously hold a particle and a hole with a finite probability. This gives rise to a new set of diagrams that are absent at zero temperature. The so called "anomalous" diagram is just one of the new diagrams. We have already studied the contribution of these new diagrams to the thermodynamic potential (Phys. Lett.A224, 127 (1996)). Here we continue that work and calculate their effect on the specific heat. We will also calculate the finite temperature contribution of the ring diagrams. We conclude that the ln T behavior of the specific heat due to exchange gets canceled by the new contribution of the new diagrams, and that screening is not essential to resolve this anomaly.