No Arabic abstract
We study the vacuum pair production by a time-dependent strong electric field based on the exact WKB analysis. We identify the generic structure of a Stokes graph for systems with the vacuum pair production and show that the number of produced pairs is given by a product of connection matrices for Stokes segments connecting pairs of turning points. We derive an explicit formula for the number of produced pairs, assuming the semi-classical limit. The obtained formula can be understood as a generalization of the divergent asymptotic series method by Berry, and is consistent with other semi-classical methods such as the worldline instanton method and the steepest descent evaluation of the Bogoliubov coefficients done by Brezin and Izykson. We also use the formula to discuss effects of time-dependence of the applied strong electric field including the interplay between the perturbative multi-photon pair production and non-peturbative Schwinger mechanism, and the dynamically assisted Schwinger mechanism.
Electric fields can spontaneously decay via the Schwinger effect, the nucleation of a charged particle-anti particle pair separated by a critical distance $d$. What happens if the available distance is smaller than $d$? Previous work on this question has produced contradictory results. Here, we study the quantum evolution of electric fields when the field points in a compact direction with circumference $L < d$ using the massive Schwinger model, quantum electrodynamics in one space dimension with massive charged fermions. We uncover a new and previously unknown set of instantons that result in novel physics that disagrees with all previous estimates. In parameter regimes where the field value can be well-defined in the quantum theory, generic initial fields $E$ are in fact stable and do not decay, while initial values that are quantized in half-integer units of the charge $E = (k/2) g$ with $kin mathbb Z$ oscillate in time from $+(k/2) g$ to $-(k/2) g$, with exponentially small probability of ever taking any other value. We verify our results with four distinct techniques: numerically by measuring the decay directly in Lorentzian time on the lattice, numerically using the spectrum of the Hamiltonian, numerically and semi-analytically using the bosonized description of the Schwinger model, and analytically via our instanton estimate.
We study Schwinger mechanism for gluon pair production in the presence of arbitrary time-dependent chromo-electric background field $E^a(t)$ with arbitrary color index $a$=1,2,...8 in SU(3) by directly evaluating the path integral. We obtain an exact expression for the probability of non-perturbative gluon pair production per unit time per unit volume and per unit transverse momentum $frac{dW}{d^4x d^2p_T}$ from arbitrary $E^a(t)$. We show that the tadpole (or single gluon) effective action does not contribute to the non-perturbative gluon pair production rate $frac{dW}{d^4x d^2p_T}$. We find that the exact result for non-perturbative gluon pair production is independent of all the time derivatives $frac{d^nE^a(t)}{dt^n}$ where $n=1,2,....infty$ and has the same functional dependence on two casimir invariants $[E^a(t)E^a(t)]$ and $[d_{abc}E^a(t)E^b(t)E^c(t)]^2$ as the constant chromo-electric field $E^a$ result with the replacement: $E^a to E^a(t)$. This result may be relevant to study the production of a non-perturbative quark-gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC.
We study the time-dependent solitonic gauge fields in scalar QED, in which a charged particle has the energy of reflectionless P{o}sch-Teller potential with natural quantum numbers. Solving the quantum master equation for quadratic correlation functions, we find the exact pair-production rates as polynomials of inverse square of hyperbolic cosine, which exhibit solitonic characteristics of a finite total pair production per unit volume and a non-oscillatory behavior for the entire period, and an exponentially decaying factor in asymptotic regions. It is shown that the solitonic gauge fields are the simplest solutions of the quantum master equation and that the back-reaction of the produced pairs does not destabilize the solitonic gauge fields.
Electron-positron pair production in strong electric fields, i.e., the Sauter-Schwinger effect, is studied using the real-time Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism. Hereby, the electric field is modeled to be a homogeneous, single-pulse field with subcritical peak field strength. Momentum spectra are calculated for four different polarizations - linear, elliptic, near-circular elliptic or circular - as well as a number of linear frequency chirps. With details depending on the chosen polarization the frequency chirps lead to strong interference effects and thus quite substantial changes in the momentum spectra. The resulting produced pairs number densities depend non-linearly on the parameter characterizing the polarization and are very sensitive to variations of the chirp parameter. For some of the investigated frequency chirps this can provide an enhancement of the number density by three to four orders of magnitude.
The singularly perturbed Riccati equation is the first-order nonlinear ODE $hbar partial_x f = af^2 + bf + c$ in the complex domain where $hbar$ is a small complex parameter. We prove an existence and uniqueness theorem for exact solutions with prescribed asymptotics as $hbar to 0$ in a halfplane. These exact solutions are constructed using the Borel-Laplace method; i.e., they are Borel summations of the formal divergent $hbar$-power series solutions. As an application, we prove existence and uniqueness of exact WKB solutions for the complex one-dimensional Schrodinger equation with a rational potential.