Fermion pair production in a strong electric field

Journal Article · Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.45.4659· OSTI ID:7036209

Kluger, Y; Eisenberg, J M; Svetitsky, B ^[1]; Cooper, F; Mottola, E ^[2]

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1. School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv (Israel)
2. Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

The initial-value problem for the quantum back reaction in spinor QED is formulated and solved in the semiclassical mean-field approximation for a homogeneous but time-dependent electric field {ital E}({ital t}). We apply the method of adiabatic regularization to the Dirac equation in order to renormalize the expectation value of the currect and derive a finite coupled set of ordinary differential equations for the time evolution of the system. We solve this system in 1+1 dimensions numerically and compare the solution to a simple model based on a relativistic Boltzmann-Vlasov equation, with a particle production source term inferred from the Schwinger particle creation rate and a Pauli-blocking factor. This model reproduces very well the time behavior of the electric field and the creation rate of {ital e}{sup +}{ital e{minus}} pairs of the semiclassical calculation.

• OSTI ID: 7036209
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Vol. 45:12; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
FERMIONS
PAIR PRODUCTION
QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS
SPINOR FIELDS
BOLTZMANN-VLASOV EQUATION
BOUNDARY-VALUE PROBLEMS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DIRAC EQUATION
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRONS
MEAN-FIELD THEORY
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
POSITRONS
RELATIVITY THEORY
RENORMALIZATION
SEMICLASSICAL APPROXIMATION
TIME DEPENDENCE
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
ELECTRODYNAMICS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
INTERACTIONS
LEPTONS
MATTER
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
WAVE EQUATIONS
661100* - Classical & Quantum Mechanics- (1992-)
662110 - General Theory of Particles & Fields- Theory of Fields & Strings- (1992-)
662230 - Quantum Chromodynamics- (1992-)