The Schwinger mechanism and graphene

Abstract

The Schwinger mechanism, the production of charged particle-antiparticle pairs in a macroscopic external electric field, is derived for 2+1 dimensional theories. The rate of pair production per unit area for four species of massless fermions, with charge $q$, in a constant electric field $E$ is given by ${\pi }^{-2}{\hslash }^{-3/2}{\tilde{c}}^{-1/2}(qE{)}^{3/2}$ where $\tilde{c}$ is the speed of light for the two-dimensional system. To the extent undoped graphene behaves like the quantum field-theoretic vacuum for massless fermions in 2+1 dimensions, the Schwinger mechanism should be testable experimentally. A possible experimental configuration for this is proposed. Effects due to deviations from this idealized picture of graphene are briefly considered. It is argued that with present day samples of graphene, tests of the Schwinger formula may be possible.

Extensive revisions. The distinction between the vacuum decay rate and the pair production rate in the Schwinger mechanism is now stressed. The discussion of quality of sample needed for a viable experimental test has been significantly expanded. References added

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Cited by in corpus (107)

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• Non-linear electric transport in graphene: quantum quench dynamics and the Schwinger mechanism
• Creation of particle-hole superposition states in graphene at multiphoton resonant excitation by laser radiation
• Tunneling Breakdown of a Strongly Correlated Insulating State in VO${}_2$ Induced by Intense Multi-Terahertz Excitation
• Strongly enhanced pair production in combined high- and low-frequency laser fields
• Out-of-equilibrium criticalities in graphene superlattices
• Interaction Induced Quantum Valley Hall Effect in Graphene
• Dirac fermions in strong electric field and quantum transport in graphene
• Geometrical and topological aspects of graphene and related materials
• Ballistic transport in graphene beyond linear response
• Quantization of charged fields in the presence of critical potential steps
• Creation of quasiparticles in graphene by a time-dependent electric field
• Momentum distribution of particles created in space-time-dependent colliding laser pulses
• Planar QED at finite temperature and density: Hall conductivity, Berry's phases and minimal conductivity of graphene
• Ballistic transport, chiral anomaly and emergence of the neutral electron - hole plasma in graphene
• Optical lattice quantum simulator for QED in strong external fields: spontaneous pair creation and the Sauter-Schwinger effect
• Magnetodielectric effect of Graphene-PVA Nanocomposites
• Conductivity of pure graphene: Theoretical approach using the polarization tensor
• Experimental and theoretical investigation of the thermal effect in the Casimir interaction from graphene
• Electronic states of pseudospin-1 fermions in dice lattice ribbons
• Nonperturbative Bethe-Heitler pair creation in combined high- and low-frequency laser fields
• Time-domain quantum interference in graphene
• Strong-Field Breit-Wheeler Pair Production in Short Laser Pulses: Identifying Multiphoton Interference and Carrier-Envelope-Phase Effects
• Quantum simulator for the Schwinger effect with atoms in bi-chromatic optical lattices
• Schwinger pair production at nonzero temperatures or in compact directions
• Optical high harmonic generation in Dirac materials
• Sauter-Schwinger like tunneling in tilted Bose-Hubbard lattices in the Mott phase
• Low-dimensional approach to pair production in an oscillating electric field: Application to bandgap graphene layers
• Thermal effect in the Casimir force for graphene and graphene-coated substrates: Impact of nonzero mass gap and chemical potential
• Theory of low power ultra-broadband terahertz sideband generation in bi-layer graphene
• Theory of reflectivity properties of graphene-coated material plates
• Entanglement Generation by Electric Field Background
• Casimir and Casimir-Polder Forces in Graphene Systems: Quantum Field Theoretical Description and Thermodynamics
• Analog Sauter-Schwinger effect in semiconductors for spacetime-dependent fields
• Dynamics of the (spin-) Hall effect in topological insulators and graphene
• Kramers-Kronig relations and causality conditions for graphene in the framework of the Dirac model
• Reflectivity properties of graphene with nonzero mass-gap parameter
• Dimensionality-driven photoproduction of massive Dirac pairs near threshold in gapped graphene monolayers
• Chirality Production with Mass Effects-Schwinger Pair Production and the Axial Ward Identity
• Dynamically assisted Schwinger mechanism and chirality production in parallel electromagnetic field
• Creation of planar charged fermions in Coulomb and Aharonov-Bohm potentials
• Simulating dynamically assisted production of Dirac pairs in gapped graphene monolayers
• Euler - Heisenberg effective action and magnetoelectric effect in multilayer graphene
• Nonlinear magnetization of graphene
• Scattering and pair creation by a constant electric field between two capacitor plates
• Signature of Schwinger's pair creation rate via radiation generated in graphene by strong electric current
• Pair emission from a relativistic domain wall in antiferromagnets
• Quantum electrodynamics with anisotropic scaling: Heisenberg-Euler action and Schwinger pair production in the bilayer graphene
• Dynamics of quasiparticles in graphene under intense circularly polarized light
• Schwinger Effect and Negative Differential Conductivity in Holographic Models
• Quantum field theoretical description of the Casimir effect between two real graphene sheets and thermodynamics
• Spatially Assisted Schwinger Mechanism and Magnetic Catalysis
• Carrier-envelope phase effects in graphene
• Pair production from the vacuum by a weakly inhomogeneous space-dependent electric potential step
• Radiation from electrons in graphene in strong electric field
• Schwinger pair creation in multilayer graphene
• Quantum field theory of the Casimir force for graphene
• Quantum field theoretical framework for the electromagnetic response of graphene and dispersion relations with implications to the Casimir effect
• The inverse problem for Schwinger pair production
• Nonequilibrium Excitations and Transport of Dirac Electrons in Electric-Field-Driven Graphene
• Coherent destruction of tunneling in graphene irradiated by elliptically polarized lasers
• Plane density of induced vacuum charge in a supercritical Coulomb potential
• Effects of discrete topology on quantum transport across a graphene $n-p-n$ junction: A quantum gravity analogue
• Vacuum-excited surface plasmon polaritons
• Two distinct ballistic processes in graphene at Dirac point
• Pairs Emission in a Uniform Background Field: an Algebraic Approach
• Quantum tunnelling from vacuum in multidimensions
• Backreaction of Schwinger pair creation in massive QED${}_2$
• Strong-field Breit-Wheeler pair production in ${\mathrm{QED}}_{2+1}$
• Phase control of Schwinger pair production by colliding laser pulses
• Light-amplified Landau-Zener conductivity in gapped graphene monolayers: a simulacrum of photo-catalyzed vacuum instability
• Driven quantum tunneling and pair creation with graphene Landau levels
• Supersymmetric Analysis of the Dirac-Weyl Operator within PT Symmetry
• Plunging in the Dirac sea using graphene quantum dots
• On elastic scattering amplitude of planar charged fermions in a constant magnetic field
• Nonlinear electric transport in graphene with magnetic disorder
• On the mystery of the missing pie in graphene
• Quasi-stationary states and fermion pair creation from a vacuum in supercritical Coulomb field
• Multiphoton absorption and Rabi oscillations in armchair graphene nanoribbons
• An algorithm for exact analytical solutions for tilted anisotropic Dirac materials
• On the supersymmetric pseudo-QED
• Dirac particle dynamics of a superconducting circuit
• Vacuum decay and the transmission resonances in space-dependent electric fields
• Prediction of the Expansion of the Universe made by Alexander Friedmann and the Effect of Particle Creation in Cosmology
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• A weak-value model for virtual particles supplying the electric current in graphene: the minimal conductivity and the Schwinger mechanism
• Charged scalars at finite electric field and temperature in the optimized perturbation theory
• Aharonov-Bohm-Coulomb Problem in Graphene Ring
• Observation of Analogue Dynamic Schwinger Effect and Non-Perturbative Light Sensing in Lead Halide Perovskites
• Condensed-matter analogs of the Sauter--Schwinger effect
• In- and out-states of scalar particles confined between two capacitor plates
• Coulomb impurities in graphene driven by fast ions
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• LHC card games: bringing about retrocausality?
• Notes on holographic Schwinger effect
• Short-distance Schwinger-mechanism and chiral symmetry
• Dynamically assisted pair production in subcritical potential step and particle--anti-particle interpretations
• Momentum spectra of particles produced in a single pulse of an electric field
• Confinement of spin-orbit induced Dirac states in quantum point contacts
• Graphene tests of Klein phenomena
• Electrical conductivity of collapsed multilayer graphene tubes
• Vacuum instability by a chromoelectric field in 2 + 1-dimensions