23 research outputs found
Exact factorization of the time-dependent electron-nuclear wavefunction
We present an exact decomposition of the complete wavefunction for a system
of nuclei and electrons evolving in a time-dependent external potential. We
derive formally exact equations for the nuclear and electronic wavefunctions
that lead to rigorous definitions of a time-dependent potential energy surface
(TDPES) and a time-dependent geometric phase. For the molecular ion
exposed to a laser field, the TDPES proves to be a useful interpretive tool to
identify different mechanisms of dissociation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Electrostatic pair creation and recombination in quantum plasmas
The collective production of electron-positron pairs by electrostatic waves
in quantum plasmas is investigated. In particular, a semi-classical governing
set of equation for a self-consistent treatment of pair creation by the
Schwinger mechanism in a quantum plasma is derived.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in JETP Letter
The kinetic description of vacuum particle creation in the oscillator representation
The oscillator representation is used for the non-perturbative description of
vacuum particle creation in a strong time-dependent electric field in the
framework of scalar QED. It is shown that the method can be more effective for
the derivation of the quantum kinetic equation (KE) in comparison with the
Bogoliubov method of time-dependent canonical transformations. This KE is used
for the investigation of vacuum creation in periodical linear and circular
polarized electric fields and also in the case of the presence of a constant
magnetic field, including the back reaction problem. In particular, these
examples are applied for a model illustration of some features of vacuum
creation of electron-positron plasma within the planned experiments on the
X-ray free electron lasers.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, v2: a reference added; some changes in tex
Back-reaction in a cylinder
A system is studied in which initially a strong classical electric field
exists within an infinitely-long cylinder and no charges are present.
Subsequently, within the cylinder, pairs of charged particles tunnel out from
the vacuum and the current produced through their acceleration by the field
acts back on the field, setting up plasma oscillations. This yields a rough
model of phenomena that may occur in the pre-equilibrium formation phase of a
quark-gluon plasma. In an infinite volume, this back-reaction has been studied
in a field-theory description, and it has been found that the results of a full
calculation of this sort are well represented in a much simpler transport
formalism. It is the purpose here to explore that comparison for a situation
involving a cylindrical volume of given radius.Comment: 19 pages plus 13 figure
Collective Deceleration of Ultrarelativistic Nuclei and Creation of Quark-Gluon Plasma
We propose a unified space-time picture of baryon stopping and quark-gluon
plasma creation in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. It is assumed that
the highly Lorentz contracted nuclei are decelerated by the coherent color
field which is formed between them after they pass through each other. This
process continues until the field is neutralized by the Schwinger mechanism.
Conservation of energy and momentum allow us to calculate the energy losses of
the nuclear slabs and the initial energy density of the quark-gluon plasma.Comment: 11 pages in revtex, 2 eps figure
Pair creation: back-reactions and damping
We solve the quantum Vlasov equation for fermions and bosons, incorporating
spontaneous pair creation in the presence of back-reactions and collisions.
Pair creation is initiated by an external impulse field and the source term is
non-Markovian. A simultaneous solution of Maxwell's equation in the presence of
feedback yields an internal current and electric field that exhibit plasma
oscillations with a period tau_pl. Allowing for collisions, these oscillations
are damped on a time-scale, tau_r, determined by the collision frequency.
Plasma oscillations cannot affect the early stages of the formation of a
quark-gluon plasma unless tau_r >> tau_pl and tau_pl approx. 1/Lambda_QCD
approx 1 fm/c.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure, REVTEX, epsfig.st
A kinetic approach to eta' production from a CP-odd phase
The production of (eta,eta')- mesons during the decay of a CP-odd phase is
studied within an evolution operator approach. We derive a quantum kinetic
equation starting from the Witten-DiVecchia-Veneziano Lagrangian for
pseudoscalar mesons containing a U_A(1) symmetry breaking term. The non-linear
vacuum mean field for the flavour singlet pseudoscalar meson is treated as a
classical, self-interacting background field with fluctuations assumed to be
small. The numerical solution provides the time evolution of momentum
distribution function of produced eta'- mesons after a quench at the
deconfinement phase transition. We show that the time evolution of the momentum
distribution of the produced mesons depend strongly on the shape of the
effective potential at the end of the quench, exhibiting either parametric or
tachyonic resonances. Quantum statistical effects are essential and lead to a
pronounced Bose enhancement of the low momentum states.Comment: 10 pages, latex, epsfig, 6 figure
Towards the Theory of Cosmological Phase Transitions
We discuss recent progress (and controversies) in the theory of finite
temperature phase transitions. This includes the structure of the effective
potential at a finite temperature, the infrared problem in quantum statistics
of gauge fields, the theory of formation of critical and subcritical bubbles
and the theory of bubble wall propagation.Comment: 50 p
Phase Space Description of the Leading Order Quark and Gluon Production from a Space-Time Dependent Chromofield
We derive source terms for the production of quarks and gluons from the QCD
vacuum in the presence of a space-time dependent external chromofield A_{cl} to
the order of S^{(1)}. We found that the source terms for the parton production
processes A_{cl} -> q\bar{q} and A_{cl},A_{cl}A_{cl} -> gg also include the
annihilation processes q\bar{q} -> A_{cl} and gg -> A_{cl},A_{cl}A_{cl}. The
source terms we derive are applicable for the description of the production of
partons with momentum p larger rhan gA which itself must be larger than
\Lambda_{QCD}. We observe that these source terms for the production of partons
from a space-time dependent chromofield can be used to study the production and
equilibration of the quark-gluon plasma during the very early stages of an
ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision.Comment: 30 pages latex (single spaced), 7 eps figures, Revised Version, To
appear in Physical Review
Schwinger Particle-Production Mechanism for a Finite-Length Flux Tube with Transverse Confinement
Previous results for the pair production probability in a strong electric
field with a finite longitudinal separation are generalized to the case of a
finite-length flux tube with transverse confinement. The threshold length of
the flux tube, below which pair production cannot occur, increases as a result
of transverse confinement.Comment: 12 pages (REVTeX