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arXiv · 0807.2785

Pair Production Beyond the Schwinger Formula in Time-Dependent Electric Fields

Florian Hebenstreit·Reinhard Alkofer·Holger Gies
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Abstract

We investigate electron-positron pair production in pulse-shaped electric background fields using a non-Markovian quantum kinetic equation. We identify a pulse-length range for subcritical fields still in the nonperturbative regime where the number of produced pairs significantly exceeds that of a naive expectation based on the Schwinger formula. From a conceptual viewpoint, we find a remarkable quantitative agreement between the (real-time) quantum kinetic approach and the (imaginary-time) effective action approach.

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Florian Hebenstreit, Reinhard Alkofer, Holger Gies. 2008-09-22. Pair Production Beyond the Schwinger Formula in Time-Dependent Electric Fields. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.78.061701

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