Multiple colliding electromagnetic pulses: a way to lower the threshold of e+e−e^+e^- pair production from vacuum

The scheme of simultaneous multiple pulse focusing on one spot naturally arises from the structural features of projected new laser systems, such as ELI and HiPER. It is shown that the multiple pulse configuration is beneficial for observing $e^+e^-$ pair production from vacuum under the action of sufficiently strong electromagnetic fields. The field of the focused pulses is described using a realistic three-dimensional model based on an exact solution of the Maxwell equations. The $e^+e^-$ pair production threshold in terms of electromagnetic field energy can be substantially lowered if, instead of one or even two colliding pulses, multiple pulses focused on one spot are used. The multiple pulse interaction geometry gives rise to subwavelength field features in the focal region. These features result in the production of extremely short $e^+e^-$ bunches.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Fermion Pair Production From an Electric Field Varying in Two Dimensions

The Hamiltonian describing fermion pair production from an arbitrarily time-varying electric field in two dimensions is studied using a group-theoretic approach. We show that this Hamiltonian can be encompassed by two, commuting SU(2) algebras, and that the two-dimensional problem can therefore be reduced to two one-dimensional problems. We compare the group structure for the two-dimensional problem with that previously derived for the one-dimensional problem, and verify that the Schwinger result is obtained under the appropriate conditions.Comment: Latex, 14 pages of text. Full postscript version available via the worldwide web at http://nucth.physics.wisc.edu/ or by anonymous ftp from ftp://nucth.physics.wisc.edu:/pub/preprints

Manifestation of spin-orbit interaction in tunneling between 2D electron layers

An influence of spin-orbit interaction on the tunneling between two 2D electron layers is considered. Particular attention is addressed to the relation between the contribution of Rashba and Dresselhaus types. It is shown that without scattering of the electrons, the tunneling conductance can either exhibit resonances at certain voltage values or be substantially suppressed over the whole voltage range. The dependence of the conductance on voltage turns out to be very sensitive to the relation between Rashba and Dresselhaus contributions even in the absence of magnetic field. The elastic scattering broadens the resonances in the first case and restores the conductance to a larger magnitude in the latter one. These effects open possibility to determine the parameters of spin-orbit interaction and electrons scattering time in tunneling experiments with no necessity of external magnetic field

Quantum effects with an X-ray free electron laser

A quantum kinetic equation coupled with Maxwell's equation is used to estimate the laser power required at an XFEL facility to expose intrinsically quantum effects in the process of QED vacuum decay via spontaneous pair production. A 9 TW-peak XFEL laser with photon energy 8.3 keV could be sufficient to initiate particle accumulation and the consequent formation of a plasma of spontaneously produced pairs. The evolution of the particle number in the plasma will exhibit non-Markovian aspects of the strong-field pair production process and the plasma's internal currents will generate an electric field whose interference with that of the laser leads to plasma oscillations.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX2

Schwinger Pair Production in dS_2 and AdS_2

We study Schwinger pair production in scalar QED from a uniform electric field in dS_2 with scalar curvature R_{dS} = 2 H^2 and in AdS_2 with R_{AdS} = - 2 K^2. With suitable boundary conditions, we find that the pair-production rate is the same analytic function of the scalar curvature in both cases.Comment: RevTex 6 pages, no figure; replaced by the version published in PR

Damping of electromagnetic waves due to electron-positron pair production

The problem of the backreaction during the process of electron-positron pair production by a circularly polarized electromagnetic wave propagating in a plasma is investigated. A model based on the relativistic Boltzmann-Vlasov equation with a source term corresponding to the Schwinger formula for the pair creation rate is used. The damping of the wave, the nonlinear up-shift of its frequency due to the plasma density increase and the effect of the damping on the wave polarization and on the background plasma acceleration are investigated as a function of the wave amplitude.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; revtex

Virtual Processes and Superradiance in Spin-Boson Models

We consider spin-boson models composed by a single bosonic mode and an ensemble of $N$ identical two-level atoms. The situation where the coupling between the bosonic mode and the atoms generates real and virtual processes is studied, where the whole system is in thermal equilibrium with a reservoir at temperature $\beta^{-1}$. Phase transitions from ordinary fluorescence to superradiant phase in three different models is investigated. First a model where the coupling between the bosonic mode and the $j-th$ atom is via the pseudo-spin operator $\sigma^{,z}_{(j)}$ is studied. Second, we investigate the generalized Dicke model, introducing different coupling constants between the single mode bosonic field and the environment, $g_{1}$ and $g_{2}$ for rotating and counter-rotating terms, respectively. Finally it is considered a modified version of the generalized Dicke model with intensity-dependent coupling in the rotating terms. In the first model the zero mode contributes to render the canonical entropy a negative quantity for low temperatures. The last two models presents phase transitions, even when only Hamiltonian terms which generates virtual processes are considered

Electron-Positron Pair Production in Space- or Time-Dependent Electric Fields

Treating the production of electron and positron pairs by a strong electric field from the vacuum as a quantum tunneling process we derive, in semiclassical approximation, a general expression for the pair production rate in a $z$-dependent electric field $E(z)$ pointing in the $z$-direction. We also allow for a smoothly varying magnetic field parallel to $E(z)$. The result is applied to a confined field $E(z)\not=0$ for $|z|\lesssim \ell$, a semi-confined field $E(z)\not=0$ for $z\gtrsim 0$, and a linearly increasing field $E(z)\sim z$. The boundary effects of the confined fields on pair-production rates are exhibited. A simple variable change in all formulas leads to results for electric fields depending on time rather than space. In addition, we discuss tunneling processes in which empty atomic bound states are spontaneously filled by negative-energy electrons from the vacuum under positron emission. In particular, we calculate the rate at which the atomic levels of a bare nucleus of finite size $r_{\rm n}$ and large $Z\gg 1$ are filled by spontaneous pair creation.Comment: 33 pages and 9 figures. to appear in Phys. Rev.

Worldline Instantons II: The Fluctuation Prefactor

In a previous paper [1], it was shown that the worldline expression for the nonperturbative imaginary part of the QED effective action can be approximated by the contribution of a special closed classical path in Euclidean spacetime, known as a worldline instanton. Here we extend this formalism to compute also the prefactor arising from quantum fluctuations about this classical closed path. We present a direct numerical approach for determining this prefactor, and we find a simple explicit formula for the prefactor in the cases where the inhomogeneous electric field is a function of just one spacetime coordinate. We find excellent agreement between our semiclassical approximation, conventional WKB, and recent numerical results using numerical worldline loops.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figure; v2 references added, version in PR