Schwinger pair production at nonzero temperatures or in compact directions
arXiv:1512.05716 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.98.036008
Abstract
Electric fields may decay by quantum tunneling: as calculated by Schwinger, an electron-positron pair may be summoned from the vacuum. In this paper I calculate the pair-production rate at nonzero temperatures. I find that at high temperatures the decay rate is dominated by a new instanton that involves both thermal fluctuation and quantum tunneling; this decay is exponentially faster than the rate in the literature. I also calculate the decay rate when the electric field wraps a compact circle (at zero temperature). The same new instanton also governs this rate: I find that for small circles decay is dominated by a process that drops the electric field by one unit, but does not produce charged particles.
v2: switched order of the two derivations for pedagogical reasons, added exposition, close to published version
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