On Electron–Positron Pair Production by a Spatially Inhomogeneous Electric Field

A detailed analysis of electron–positron pair creation induced by a spatially non-uniform and static electric field from vacuum is presented. A typical example is provided by the Sauter potential. For this potential, we derive the analytic expressions for vacuum decay and pair production rate accounted for the entire range of spatial variations. In the limit of a sharp step, we recover the divergent result due to the singular electric field at the origin. The limit of a constant field reproduces the classical result of Euler, Heisenberg and Schwinger, if the latter is properly averaged over the width of a spatial variation. The pair production by the Sauter potential is described for different regimes from weak to strong fields. For all these regimes, the locally constant-field rate is shown to be the upper limit.     

强激光场中真空极化效应

通过求解狄拉克方程,对强激光场下真空极化问题进行了研究。理论计算结果表明：在仅随时间变化的电场下,要激发狄拉克海中负能级的电子,需要两个阈值条件,即激光场的电场强度大于等于1016 V/cm和激光场的持续时间大于等于10-21 s。前者主要保证负能态电子有足够的能量跃迁到正能态,后者主要是保证电子在跃迁过程中动量亏损得以补偿。     

强激光场中真空极化效应

 通过求解狄拉克方程,对强激光场下真空极化问题进行了研究。理论计算结果表明：在仅随时间变化的电场下,要激发狄拉克海中负能级的电子,需要两个阈值条件,即激光场的电场强度大于等于10¹⁶ V/cm和激光场的持续时间大于等于10^-21 s。前者主要保证负能态电子有足够的能量跃迁到正能态,后者主要是保证电子在跃迁过程中动量亏损得以补偿。     

Dynamical view of pair creation in uniform electric and magnetic fields

Pair creation in a uniform classical electromagnetic field (Schwinger mechanism) is studied focusing on the time evolution of the distribution of created particles. The time evolution of the distribution in time-dependent fields is also presented as well as effects of back reaction. Motivated by the Glasma flux tube, which may be formed at the initial stage of heavy-ion collisions, we investigate effects of a magnetic field parallel to an electric field, and find that the magnetic field makes the evolution of a fermion system faster.     

Particle self-bunching in the Schwinger effect in spacetime-dependent electric fields

Nonperturbative electron-positron pair creation (the Schwinger effect) is studied based on the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism in 1+1 dimensions. An ab initio calculation of the Schwinger effect in the presence of a simple space- and time-dependent electric field pulse is performed for the first time, allowing for the calculation of the time evolution of observable quantities such as the charge density, the particle number density or the total number of created particles. We predict a new self-bunching effect of charges in phase space due to the spatial and temporal structure of the pulse.     

Radiation from electrons in graphene in strong electric field

We study the interaction of electrons in graphene with the quantized electromagnetic field in the presence of an applied uniform electric field using the Dirac model of graphene. Electronic states are represented by exact solutions of the Dirac equation in the electric background, and amplitudes of first-order Feynman diagrams describing the interaction with the photon field are calculated for massive Dirac particles in both valleys. Photon emission probabilities from a single electron and from a many-electron system at the charge neutrality point are derived, including the angular and frequency dependence, and several limiting cases are analyzed. The pattern of photon emission at the Dirac point in a strong field is determined by an interplay between the nonperturbative creation of electron–hole pairs and spontaneous emission, allowing for the possibility of observing the Schwinger effect in measurements of the radiation emitted by pristine graphene under DC voltage.     

Entanglement generation by electric field background

The quantum vacuum is unstable under the influence of an external electric field and decays into pairs of charged particles, a process which is known as the Schwinger pair production. We propose and demonstrate that this electric field can generate entanglement. Using the Schwinger pair production for constant and pulsed electric fields, we study entanglement for scalar particles with zero spins and Dirac fermions. One can observe the variation of the entanglement produced for bosonic and fermionic modes with respect to different parameters.     

Quantum electrodynamics of one scalar particle

The theory of the interaction between a complex scalar field and the electromagnetic field is presented with initial and final conditions that allow an interpretation in the context of the relativistic quantum mechanics of a single charged scalar particle. Included are particle scattering, antiparticle scattering, pair creation, and pair annihilation due to a classical dynamical electromagnetic field. The equations of motion are solved by a perturbation expansion, which does not lead to the troublesome divergent terms of quantum field theory.     

Particle creation by charged black holes

A simple derivation is given for the leading term (n=1) in the Schwinger formula for the pair creation by a constant electric field. The same approach is applied then to the charged particle production by a charged black hole. In this case, as distinct from that of a constant electric field, the probability of the charged particle production depends essentially on the particle energy. The production rate by black holes is found in the nonrelativistic and ultrarelativistic limits. The range of values for the mass and charge of a black hole is indicated where the discussed mechanism of radiation dominates the Hawking one.     

非线性啁啾频率对势阱产生正负电子对的增强

用计算量子场论方法研究了非线性啁啾频率对势阱中正负电子对产生的增强效应。研究了由静态势阱和动态势阱组成的组合势阱中产生的正负电子对的密度、产额和能谱等性质随着啁啾参数的变化,分析了组合势阱的频谱和瞬时束缚态。发现非线性啁啾效应对低频区域比较敏感,与固定频率情况相比可以使粒子数增加2～3倍。与组合势阱相比,非线性啁啾效应对单个振荡势阱更敏感。在低频下单个振荡的势阱中正负电子对产额可提高多个数量级。这是因为在低频下单个振荡的势阱中,主要通过量子隧穿过程产生的正负电子对数目非常低。非线性啁啾效应增加了高频场成分,提高了多光子过程和动力学辅助机制。由于高频抑制作用,所以非线性啁啾效应对高频区域粒子的增量不大,甚至会抑制正负电子对的产生。     

Electromagnetic interaction in theory with Lorentz invariant CPT violation

An attempt is made to incorporate the electromagnetic interaction in a Lorentz invariant but CPT violating non-local model with particle–antiparticle mass splitting, which is regarded as a modified QED. The gauge invariance is maintained by the Schwinger non-integrable phase factor but the electromagnetic interaction breaks C, CP and CPT symmetries. Implications of the present CPT breaking scheme on the electromagnetic transitions and particle–antiparticle pair creation are discussed. The CPT violation such as the one suggested in this Letter may open a new path to the analysis of baryon asymmetry since some of the Sakharov constraints are expected to be modified.     

R~4 corrections to holographic Schwinger effect

We consider R4 corrections to the holographic Schwinger effect in an AdS black hole background and a confining D3-brane background. The potential between a test particle pair are performed for both backgrounds. We find there is no potential barrier in the critical electric field, which means that the system becomes catastrophically unstable. It is shown that for both backgrounds, increasing the inverse 't Hooft coupling parameter 1/λ enhances the Schwinger effect. We also discuss the possible relation between the Schwinger effect and the viscosity-entropy ratioη/s in strong coupling.     

Nonlinear evolution of a relativistically strong electromagnetic wave in self-created electron-positron plasma

The nonlinear interaction between the electron-positron pairs produced by an electromagnetic wave in plasma and the wave leads to damping of the wave, frequency upshift, change of polarization, and particle acceleration. The case of a circularly polarized wave is investigated in the framework of the relativistic Vlasov equation with a source term based on the Schwinger formula for the pair creation rate.     

Nonthermal radiation from black holes

We consider particle production by charged and rotating black holes. A simple derivation is presented for the leading term (n=1) in the Schwinger formula for pair creation by a constant electric field. The same approach is then applied to charged-particle production by a charged black hole. The effect is due to the tunneling of created particles through an effective Dirac gap. Nonthermal radiation from a rotating black hole can also be explained in an analogous way. In the leading semiclassical approximation, this approach is applicable to bosons as well.     

Holographic Schwinger effect

We study tunneling pair creation of W bosons by an external electric field on the Coulomb branch of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We use AdS/CFT holography to find a generalization of Schwinger's formula for the pair production rate to the strong coupling, planar limit which includes the exchange of virtual massless particles to all orders. We find that the pair creation formula has an upper critical electric field beyond which the process is no longer exponentially suppressed. The value of the critical field is identical to that which occurs in the Born-Infeld action of probe D3-branes in the AdS(5)×S(5) background, where AdS(5) and S(5) are 5-dimensional anti-de Sitter space and the 5-sphere, respectively.     

Laser Driven Electron‐Positron Pair Creation–Kinetic Theory Versus Analytical Approximations

The dynamical Schwinger effect of vacuum pair creation driven by an intense external laser pulse is studied on the basis of quantum kinetic theory. The numerical solutions of these kinetic equations exhibit a complex time dependence which makes an analysis of the physical processes difficult. In particular, the question of secondary effects, such as creation of secondary annihilation photons from the focus spot of the colliding laser beams, remains an important open problem. In the present work we, therefore, develop a perturbation theory which is able to capture the dominant time dependence of the produced electron‐positron pair density. The theory shows excellent agreement with the exact kinetic results during the laser pulse, but fails to reproduce the residual pair density remaining in the system after termination of the pulse. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Schwinger pair creation in multilayer graphene

The low energy effective field model for the multilayer graphene (at ABC stacking) in external Electric field is considered. The Schwinger pair creation rate and the vacuum persistence probability are calculated using the semiclassical approach.     

强场下真空中粒子对产生的研究进展

随着激光技术的飞快发展,激光强度不断提高,超强外场下真空中正负电子对产生的过程,即能量向质量转化过程,已经成为一个研究热点。主要综述了近几年量子Vlasov方程方法和计算量子场论(数值求解Dirac方程)方法在研究强场下真空中正负电子对产生方面的进展,分别介绍了空间均匀场和空间不均匀场下的粒子对产生的情况。第一种情况主要介绍双脉冲结构振荡电场中电子-正电子对的产生、强双频振荡电场中非微扰电子-正电子对的产生、频率调制的激光场中电子-正电子对的产生和Dirac真空对啁啾外场的快速分辨。第二种情况主要介绍优化空间局域电场提高粒子对的产生率、多个势阱-垒结构的振荡场对粒子对产生的增强、振荡 Sauter 电势中正负电子对产生的问题、操纵Dirac真空以控制其在场诱导下的衰变、作为信息传输介质的Dirac真空还有正负电子对产生中的相干和非相干啁啾机制的转变。     

Pair creation in Feshbach-Villars formalism with two components

We have studied the behavior of the Feshbach-Villars equation (FV₀) in comparison with the Klein-Gordon one (KG) in the problem of particle pair creation from the vacuum in an external electromagnetic field, considering two approaches: the Schwinger effective action method and the Bogoliubov transformation technique. In the first approach the vacuum to vacuum transition amplitude is calculated treating the FV₀ field like a bosonic field. For the second approach, that uses canonical quantization, it is shown that the relative fields and their conjugate moments obey a commutation relation and not anticommutation one. The pair creation probability and the probability that the vacuum remains a vacuum calculated from the FV₀ equation are, consequently, the same as those obtained from the KG one.Received: 12 January 2005, Revised: 24 March 2005, Published online: 4 May 2005PACS: 03.65.Ca, 03.65.Db, 03.65.Pm, 23.20.Ra