  We study the dynamical generation of masses for fundamental fermions in
quenched quantum electrodynamics (qQED) at finite temperature in the bare
vertex approximation, using Schwinger-Dyson equations (SDE). Motivated by
perturbation theory, a further simplification is introduced by taking the wave
function renormalization to be unity. In the zeroth mode approximation, the SDE
for the fermion propagator resembles QED in 2+1 dimensions (QED3) at zero
temperature with an effective dimensionful coupling alpha'=alpha T. For a fixed
temperature, mass is dynamically generated above a certain critical value of
this coupling. As expected, raising the temperature restores chiral symmetry
and fermions become massless again. We also argue that by summing over the
frequency modes and under suitable simplifications, qualitative aspects of the
result do not undergo significant changes.
