Dynamically assisted Sauter-Schwinger effect in inhomogeneous electric fields

Via the worldline instanton method, we study electron-positron pair creation by a strong electric field of the profile $E/\cosh^2(kx)$ superimposed by a weaker pulse $E'/\cosh^2(\omega t)$. If the temporal Keldysh parameter $\gamma_\omega=m\omega/(qE)$ exceeds a threshold value $\gamma_\omega^{\rm crit}$ which depends on the spatial Keldysh parameter $\gamma_k=mk/(qE)$, we find a drastic enhancement of the pair creation probability -- reporting on what we believe to be the first analytic non-perturbative result for the interplay between temporal and spatial field dependences $E(t,x)$ in the Sauter-Schwinger effect.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Quantum toy model for black-hole back-reaction

We propose a simple quantum field theoretical toy model for black hole evaporation and study the back-reaction of Hawking radiation onto the classical background. It turns out that the horizon is also ``pushed back'' in this situation (i.e., the interior region shrinks) but this back-reaction is not caused by energy conservation but by momentum balance. The effective heat capacity and the induced entropy variation can have both signs -- depending on the parameters of the model. PACS: 04.62.+v, 04.70.Dy.Comment: 4 page