Contributions of the Plasmons to the Energy Density and Pressure in the Early Universe. II. Correlation Effects

The contributions of correlation effects in the electron-positron plasma in the early universe to the thermodynamic quantities are calculated. These are found to be of the same order of magnitude as the plasmon contributions calculated in Paper I. Their contributions are of the order of 0.1% of the contributions of blackbody photons. Therefore, plasma effects in the electron-positron plasma in the early universe will not drastically alter the standard model of the evolution of the early universe. For the sake of future applications, we give detailed numerical results for the calculation of various thermodynamic quantities of the cosmic fluid in the early universe. The enhancement factor of thermonuclear reaction rates due to Debye screening is also calculated. This factor is again of the order of 0.1%.