Resolving the p+=0p^+ = 0 Ambiguity in a Homogeneous Electric Background

I present an exact solution for the Heisenberg picture, Dirac electron in the presence of an electric field which depends arbitrarily upon the light cone time parameter $x^+ = (t+x)/\sqrt{2}$. This is the largest class of background fields for which the mode functions have ever been obtained. The solution applies to electrons of any mass and in any spacetime dimension. The traditional ambiguity at $p^+ = 0$ is explicitly resolved. It turns out that the initial value operators include not only $(I + \gamma^0 \gamma^1) \psi$ at $x^+ = 0$ but also $(I - \gamma^0 \gamma^1) \psi$ at $x^- = -L$. Pair creation is a discrete and instantaneous event on the light cone, so one can compute the particle production rate in real time. In $D=1+1$ dimensions one can also see the anomaly. Another novel feature of the solution is that the expectation value of the current operators depends nonanalytically upon the background field. This seems to suggest a new, strong phase of QED.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX 2 epsilon, 2 figures, talk presented at the International Workshop on Light-cone Physics, Particles and Strings, Trento, Italy, Sept. 3-11, 200

Scaling approach for the time-dependent Kondo model

We present a new nonperturbative method to deal with the time-dependent quantum many-body problem, which is an extension of Wegner's flow equations to time-dependent Hamiltonians. The formalism provides a scaling procedure for the set of time-dependent interaction constants. We apply these ideas to a Kondo model with a ferromagnetic exchange coupling switched on over a time scale $\tau$. We show that the asymptotic expectation value of the impurity spin interpolates continuously between its quenched and adiabatic value