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arXiv · 1609.09417

Supercritical instability of Dirac electrons in the field of two oppositely charged nuclei

O. O. Sobol
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Abstract

The Dirac equation for an electron in a finite dipole potential has been studied within the method of linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO). The Coulomb potential of the nuclei that compose a dipole is regularized, by considering the finite nuclear size. It is shown that if the dipole momentum reaches a certain critical value, the novel type of supercriticality occurs; namely, the wave function of the highest occupied electron bound state changes its localization from the negatively charged nucleus to the positively charged one. This phenomenon can be interpreted as a spontaneous creation of an electron-positron pair in vacuum, with each of the created particles being in the bound state with the corresponding nucleus and partially screening it.

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O. O. Sobol. 2016-09-29. Supercritical instability of Dirac electrons in the field of two oppositely charged nuclei. https://doi.org/10.15407/ujpe61.09.0759

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