- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Schwinger particle production: Rapid switch off of the external field versus dynamical assistance

I. A. Aleksandrov1,2, D. G. Sevostyanov1, and V. M. Shabaev1

PDF

Phys. Rev. D 111, 016010 – Published 10 January, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.016010

Abstract

We consider the process of electron-positron pair production in the presence of strong electric backgrounds being rapidly switched on and off and examine the total particle yield. For sufficiently sharp field profiles, the particle number can be substantially enhanced. It is demonstrated that this enhancement is quite similar to the phenomenon of dynamical assistance by a weak high-frequency field superimposed on a strong background. Both these mechanisms are analyzed by means of exact numerical computations, worldline instanton approach, and the locally constant field approximation. We identify the timescale of the switching profile leading to the pair-production enhancement and argue that the particle yield is highly unlikely to be increased by shaping the switch on and off of realistic laser pulses. On the other hand, we confirm that it is feasible to observe the dynamically assisted Schwinger effect by adding a rapidly oscillating field to a strong electric background.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (62)

  1. F. Sauter, Z. Phys. 69, 742 (1931).
  2. W. Heisenberg and H. Euler, Z. Phys. 98, 714 (1936).
  3. J. Schwinger, Phys. Rev. 82, 664 (1951).
  4. B. S. Xie, Z. L. Li, and S. Tang, Matter Radiat. Extremes 2, 225 (2017).
  5. A. Gonoskov, T. G. Blackburn, M. Marklund, and S. S. Bulanov, Rev. Mod. Phys. 94, 045001 (2022).
  6. A. Fedotov, A. Ilderton, F. Karbstein, B. King, D. Seipt, H. Taya, and G. Torgrimsson, Phys. Rep. 1010, 1 (2023).
  7. A. M. Fedotov, E. G. Gelfer, K. Yu. Korolev, and S. A. Smolyansky, Phys. Rev. D 83, 025011 (2011).
  8. D. B. Blaschke, B. Kämpfer, S. M. Schmidt, A. D. Panferov, A. V. Prozorkevich, and S. A. Smolyansky, Phys. Rev. D 88, 045017 (2013).
  9. A. Blinne and H. Gies, Phys. Rev. D 89, 085001 (2014).
  10. J. Zahn, J. Phys. A 48, 475402 (2015).
  11. A. Otto, T. Nousch, D. Seipt, B. Kämpfer, D. Blaschke, A. D. Panferov, S. A. Smolyansky, and A. I. Titov, J. Plasma Phys. 82, 655820301 (2016).
  12. A. Ilderton, Phys. Rev. D 105, 016021 (2022).
  13. R. Schützhold, H. Gies, and G. Dunne, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 130404 (2008).
  14. M. Orthaber, F. Hebenstreit, and R. Alkofer, Phys. Lett. B 698, 80 (2011).
  15. C. Fey and R. Schützhold, Phys. Rev. D 85, 025004 (2012).
  16. C. Kohlfürst, M. Mitter, G. von Winckel, F. Hebenstreit, and R. Alkofer, Phys. Rev. D 88, 045028 (2013).
  17. I. Akal, S. Villalba-Chávez, and C. Müller, Phys. Rev. D 90, 113004 (2014).
  18. F. Hebenstreit and F. Fillion-Gourdeau, Phys. Lett. B 739, 189 (2014).
  19. M. F. Linder, C. Schneider, J. Sicking, N. Szpak, and R. Schützhold, Phys. Rev. D 92, 085009 (2015).
  20. A. Otto, D. Seipt, D. Blaschke, B. Kämpfer, and S. A. Smolyansky, Phys. Lett. B 740, 335 (2015).
  21. A. D. Panferov, S. A. Smolyansky, A. Otto, B. K. Kämpfer, D. B. Blaschke, and L. Juchnowski, Eur. Phys. J. D 70, 56 (2016).
  22. I. A. Aleksandrov, G. Plunien, and V. M. Shabaev, Phys. Rev. D 97, 116001 (2018).
  23. A. Otto, H. Oppitz, and B. Kämpfer, Eur. Phys. J. A 54, 23 (2018).
  24. I. Sitiwaldi and B.-S. Xie, Phys. Lett. B 777, 406 (2018).
  25. G. Torgrimsson, C. Schneider, and R. Schützhold, Phys. Rev. D 97, 096004 (2018).
  26. X.-G. Huang and H. Taya, Phys. Rev. D 100, 016013 (2019).
  27. S. Villalba-Chávez and C. Müller, Phys. Rev. D 100, 116018 (2019).
  28. O. Olugh, Z. L. Li, and B.-S. Xie, Phys. Lett. B 802, 135259 (2020).
  29. H. Taya, Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 023257 (2020).
  30. L.-J. Li, M. Mohamedsedik, and B.-S. Xie, Phys. Rev. D 104, 036015 (2021).
  31. I. A. Aleksandrov, V. V. Dmitriev, D. G. Sevostyanov, and S. A. Smolyansky, Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 229, 3469 (2020).
  32. D. G. Sevostyanov, I. A. Aleksandrov, G. Plunien, and V. M. Shabaev, Phys. Rev. D 104, 076014 (2021).
  33. I. A. Aleksandrov, G. Plunien, and V. M. Shabaev, Phys. Rev. D 94, 065024 (2016).
  34. I. A. Aleksandrov, G. Plunien, and V. M. Shabaev, Phys. Rev. D 96, 076006 (2017).
  35. I. A. Aleksandrov and C. Kohlfürst, Phys. Rev. D 101, 096009 (2020).
  36. G. V. Dunne and C. Schubert, Phys. Rev. D 72, 105004 (2005).
  37. G. V. Dunne, Q. H. Wang, H. Gies, and C. Schubert, Phys. Rev. D 73, 065028 (2006).
  38. F. V. Bunkin and I. I. Tugov, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 187, 541 (1969) [Sov. Phys. Dokl. 14, 678 (1970)].
  39. N. B. Narozhny, S. S. Bulanov, V. D. Mur, and V. S. Popov, Phys. Lett. A 330, 1 (2004).
  40. F. Hebenstreit, R. Alkofer, and H. Gies, Phys. Rev. D 78, 061701(R) (2008).
  41. S. S. Bulanov, V. D. Mur, N. B. Narozhny, J. Nees, and V. S. Popov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 220404 (2010).
  42. S. P. Gavrilov and D. M. Gitman, Phys. Rev. D 95, 076013 (2017).
  43. I. A. Aleksandrov, G. Plunien, and V. M. Shabaev, Phys. Rev. D 99, 016020 (2019).
  44. I. A. Aleksandrov, D. G. Sevostyanov, and V. M. Shabaev, Symmetry 14, 2444 (2022).
  45. A. A. Grib, S. G. Mamaev, and V. M. Mostepanenko, Vacuum Quantum Effects in Strong External Fields (Friedmann Laboratory Publishing, St. Petersburg, 1994).
  46. S. Schmidt, D. Blaschke, G. Röpke, S. A. Smolyansky, A. V. Prozorkevich, and V. D. Toneev, Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 07, 709 (1998).
  47. Y. Kluger, E. Mottola, and J. M. Eisenberg, Phys. Rev. D 58, 125015 (1998).
  48. V. N. Pervushin and V. V. Skokov, Acta Phys. Pol. B 37, 2587 (2006).
  49. A. V. Filatov, A. V. Prozorkevich, and S. A. Smolyansky, Proc. SPIE Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. 6165, 616509 (2006).
  50. I. A. Aleksandrov, A. Kudlis, and A. I. Klochai, Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 043009 (2024).
  51. A. I. Nikishov, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 57, 1210 (1969) [Sov. Phys. JETP 30, 660 (1970)].

  52. There is still a subtle discrepancy for large τ since the LCFA is not completely justified even if the weak pulse is absent: for the strong-pulse parameters chosen here and ϵ=0, the LCFA yields 4.0×10−10m3, while the exact number of pairs produced by the strong pulse amounts to 5.4×10−10m3 (see the horizontal line in Fig. 2). For an individual Sauter pulse, the LCFA accurately predicts the particle yield if the parameter |eE|3/2T is much larger than m2 [32], but in our case |eE|3/2T≈1.8m2.

  53. C. Kohlfürst, N. Ahmadiniaz, J. Oertel, and R. Schützhold, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 241801 (2022).
  54. N. B. Narozhny, S. S. Bulanov, V. D. Mur, and V. S. Popov, JETP Lett. 80, 382 (2004).
  55. S. S. Bulanov, N. B. Narozhny, V. D. Mur, and V. S. Popov, JETP 102, 9 (2006).
  56. I. A. Aleksandrov, A. Di Piazza, G. Plunien, and V. M. Shabaev, Phys. Rev. D 105, 116005 (2022).
  57. A. G. Tkachev, I. A. Aleksandrov, and V. M. Shabaev, arXiv:2408.04084.
  58. G. V. Dunne, H. Gies, and R. Schützhold, Phys. Rev. D 80, 111301(R) (2009).
  59. V. N. Baier and V. M. Katkov, Phys. Lett. A 374, 2201 (2010).
  60. T. Heinzl, A. Ilderton, and M. Marklund, Phys. Lett. B 692, 250 (2010).
  61. F. Karbstein, Phys. Rev. D 88, 085033 (2013).
  62. S. P. Gavrilov and D. M. Gitman, Phys. Rev. D 53, 7162 (1996).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 111, 016010– Published 10 January, 2025
  • Received 20 November 2022
  • Accepted 24 November 2024
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation