Electron-Positron Pair Production in Space- or Time-Dependent Electric Fields

Abstract

Treating the production of electron and positron pairs by a strong electric field from the vacuum as a quantum tunneling process we derive, in semiclassical approximation, a general expression for the pair production rate in a $z$-dependent electric field $E(z)$ pointing in the $z$-direction. We also allow for a smoothly varying magnetic field parallel to $E(z)$. The result is applied to a confined field $E(z)\ne 0$ for $|z|\lesssim \ell$, a semi-confined field $E(z)\ne 0$ for $z\gtrsim 0$, and a linearly increasing field $E(z)\sim z$. The boundary effects of the confined fields on pair-production rates are exhibited. A simple variable change in all formulas leads to results for electric fields depending on time rather than space. In addition, we discuss tunneling processes in which empty atomic bound states are spontaneously filled by negative-energy electrons from the vacuum under positron emission. In particular, we calculate the rate at which the atomic levels of a bare nucleus of finite size $r_{\mathrm{n}}$ and large $Z\gg 1$ are filled by spontaneous pair creation.

33 pages and 9 figures. to appear in Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (19)

• Perturbative Quantum Field Theory in the String-Inspired Formalism
• Worldline Instantons and Pair Production in Inhomogeneous Fields
• Pair Production from Vacuum at the Focus of an X-Ray Free Electron Laser
• Worldline Instantons II: The Fluctuation Prefactor
• Casimir Effect on the Worldline
• Schwinger Pair Production via Instantons in Strong Electric Fields
• Pair production in inhomogeneous fields
• Schwinger Pair Production in Electric and Magnetic Fields
• Improved Approximations for Fermion Pair Production in Inhomogeneous Electric Fields
• Multidimensional Worldline Instantons
• Quantum diffusion of magnetic fields in a numerical worldline approach
• Loops and loop clouds - a numerical approach to the worldline formalism in QED -
• Back-Reaction In Lightcone QED
• Fermion-induced quantum action of vortex systems
• On Plasma Oscillations in Strong Electric Fields
• Electrodynamics for Nuclear Matter in Bulk
• On a Separatrix in the Gravitational Collapse to an Overcritical Electromagnetic Black Hole
• Vacuum polarization and plasma oscillations
• Non trivial generalizations of the Schwinger pair production result

Cited by in corpus (38)

• New Strong-Field QED Effects at ELI: Nonperturbative Vacuum Pair Production
• The Stokes Phenomenon and Schwinger Vacuum Pair Production in Time-Dependent Laser Pulses
• Schwinger mechanism revisited
• Particle self-bunching in the Schwinger effect in spacetime-dependent electric fields
• Momentum Spectra for Dynamically Assisted Schwinger Pair Production
• Effective Action of QED in Electric Field Backgrounds
• Lifting shell structures in the dynamically assisted Schwinger effect in periodic fields
• Fermionic current and Schwinger effect in de Sitter spacetime
• Spin polarized electron-positron pair production via elliptical polarized laser fields
• Scalar current of created pairs by Schwinger mechanism in de Sitter spacetime
• Ponderomotive effects in multiphoton pair production
• Effective Action of QED in Electric Field Backgrounds II: Spatially Localized Fields
• Comparison of semiclassical and Wigner function methods in pair production in rotating fields
• Sauter-Schwinger effect for colliding laser pulses
• Semiclassical pair production rate for rotating electric fields
• On the effect of time-dependent inhomogeneous magnetic fields in electron-positron pair production
• Assisted dynamical Schwinger effect: pair production in a pulsed bifrequent field
• Schwinger effect in inhomogeneous electric fields
• Electron and positron pair production of compact stars
• Semiclassical pair production rate for time-dependent electrical fields with more than one component: -WKB-approach and world-line instantons
• Exact Pair Production Rate for a Smooth Potential Step
• WKB approach to pair creation in spacetime-dependent fields
• Electron-positron pair oscillation in spatially inhomogeneous electric fields and radiation
• Schwinger Pair Production at Finite Temperature in QED
• A simple way to take into account back reaction on pair creation
• Supercritically charged objects and electron-positron pair creation
• Polarizability of electrically induced magnetic vortex plasma
• Time evolution of the QED vacuum in a uniform electric Field: Complete analytic solution by spinorial decomposition
• Vacuum pair-production in a classical electric field and an electromagnetic wave
• Phase control of Schwinger pair production by colliding laser pulses
• Energy levels of a scalar particle in a static gravitational field close to the black hole limit
• Fractional Effective Action at strong electromagnetic fields
• Electron-positron pairs production in a macroscopic charged core
• Bound states of spin-half particles in a static gravitational field close to the black hole field
• Vacuum decay and the transmission resonances in space-dependent electric fields
• Schwinger Pair Production in Pulsed Electric Fields
• Electric and magnetic axion quark nuggets, their stability and their detection
• Condensed-matter analogs of the Sauter--Schwinger effect