Physical stability of the QED vacuum

Abstract

The possibility of electron-positron pair creation by an electric field is studied by using only those methods in field theory the predictions of which are confirmed experimentally. These methods include the perturbative method of quantum electrodynamics and the bases of classical electrodynamics. Such an approach includes the back reaction. It is found that the vacuum is always stable, in the sense that pair creation, if occurs, cannot be interpreted as a decay of the vacuum, but rather as a decay of the source of the electric field or as a process similar to bremsstrahlung. It is also found that there is no pair creation in a static electric field, because it is inconsistent with energy conservation. The non-perturbative aspects arising from the Borel summation of a divergent perturbative expansion are discussed. It is argued that the conventional methods that predict pair creation in a classical background electric field cannot serve even as approximations. The analogy with the possibility of particle creation by a gravitational field is qualitatively discussed.