Thermostatistics of a q-deformed relativistic ideal Fermi gas

In this paper, we formulate a q-deformed many-body theory for relativistic Fermi gas and discuss the effects of the deformation parameter q on physical properties of such systems. Since antiparticle excitations appear in the relativistic regime, a suitable treatment to the choice of deformation parameters for both fermions and antifermions must be carefully taken in order to get a consistent theory. By applying this formulation, we further study the thermostatistic properties of a q-deformed ideal relativistic Fermi gas. It can be shown that even in the noninteracting scenario, the system exhibits interesting characteristics which are significantly different from ordinary Fermi gases. Explicitly, antiparticles may become dominant due to the shift of chemical potential by the deformation parameter q. This may build a solid foundation for further studies of q-deformed relativistic interacting systems. We also apply our model to study the electron gas in a white dwarf. The effect of the deformation parameter on the Chandrasekhar limit is discussed. (paper)