Transport and relaxation in degenerate quark plasmas

Transport coefficients and relaxation times are calculated for degenerate quark matter within perturbative QCD for temperatures $T$ and inverse screening lengths $q_D$ much smaller than the quark chemical potentials. The important physical effect is "dynamical screening" of transverse interactions. The physics changes significantly when $T\sim q_D$ and all relaxation times change from a power law dependence on $T$ for $T\ll q_D$ to a power law times a logarithmic one for $T\gg q_D$. Results differ very much from standard Fermi liquid results in both limits. Detailed analytical calculations of the momentum relaxation time for interpenetrating quark plasmas, the diffusion coefficient, electrical conductivity, viscosity, and the thermal conductivity are performed to leading orders in the coupling constant. Applications to diffusion processes in the burning of neutron stars into strange quark matter and to electrical conduction in quark matter are given.