Quasi-stationary states and fermion pair creation from a vacuum in supercritical Coulomb field

Abstract

Creation of charged fermion pair from a vacuum in the so-called supercritical Coulomb potential is examined for the case when created pair moves in one plane. In which case the quantum dynamics of charged massive or massless fermions can be described by the two-dimensional Dirac Hamiltonians with a Coulomb potential. These Hamiltonians are singular and require the additional definition in order for them to be treated as self-adjoint quantum-mechanical operators. We construct the self-adjoint two-dimensional Dirac Hamiltonians with a Coulomb potential and determine the quantum-mechanical states for such Hamiltonians in the corresponding Hilbert spaces of square-integrable functions. We determine the scattering amplitude in which the self-adjoint extension parameter is incorporated and then obtain the equations implicitly defining the possible discrete energy spectra of the self-adjoint Dirac Hamiltonians with a Coulomb potential. It is shown that the quantum system in the presence of a supercritical Coulomb potential becomes unstable which manifests in the appearance of quasi-stationary states in the lower (negative) energy continuum. The energy spectrum of these states is quasi-discrete, consists of broadened levels whose width is related to the inverse lifetime of the quasi-stationary state as well as the creation probability of charged fermion pair by supercritical Coulomb field. Explicit analytical expressions for the creation probabilities of charged (massive or massless) fermion pair are obtained in a supercritical Coulomb field.