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Title: Particle creation in a time-dependent electric field revisited

Journal Article · · Annals of Physics (New York)
 [1]
  1. IUCAA, Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007 (India)

We adopt the general formalism for analyzing evolution of gaussian states of quantized fields in time-dependent backgrounds in the Schrodinger picture (presented in detail in Mahajan and Padmanabhan [G. Mahajan, T. Padmanabhan, Gen. Rel. Grav. 40 (2008) 661]) to study the example of a spatially uniform electric field background (in a time-dependent gauge) which is kept turned on for a finite duration of time. In particular, we study the time-dependent particle content, defined in terms of the concept of instantaneous eigenstates, and describe how it captures the time evolution of the quantized field modes. The actual particle creation process occurs over a relatively short interval in time, and the particle content saturates rather quickly. We also compare the power spectrum of the field modes, computed in the asymptotic limit, with the corresponding situation in a cosmological de Sitter background. Particle creation under the influence of a spiked electric field localized in time, as a particular limiting case of the above general model, is also considered.

OSTI ID:
21167713
Journal Information:
Annals of Physics (New York), Vol. 324, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.aop.2008.10.012; PII: S0003-4916(08)00169-3; Copyright (c) 2008 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-4916
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English