COMPETITION BETWEEN 2-BODY AND 3-BODY COLLISIONS IN A DENSE GAS AT FINITE TEMPERATURE

A new method to calculate two- and three-body collisions in a non-dilute gas is introduced and applied to a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution at a given density and temperature. The number of two- and three-body scatterings is computed and compared to an analytical result. The agreement of the numerical to the analytical calculation is excellent for all temperatures, densities and elementary cross sections. The method is extended to quantum gases for future heavy-ion collision applications. We discuss the differences between the classical and the Fermi-Dirac distribution and in particular demonstrate the important role of Pauli blocking even at temperatures as high as 100 MeV.