Abstract
We investigate the process of Abelian pair production in the presence of strong inhomogeneous and time-dependent external electric fields. The spatial dependence of the external field is motivated by a non-Abelian color flux tube in heavy-ion collisions. We show that the inhomogeneity significantly increases the particle yield compared to that in the commonly used models with a constant and homogeneous field. Moreover our results indicate that in contrast to the latter, most of the particles are produced at the interface of the field profile in accordance with Heisenberg's prediction.
Highlights
Pair production from vacuum is gaining interest from both theorists and experimentalists
In the Abelian (QED) case it is considered to be the final frontier of high-energy laser experiments
While the attainable energy density of today experiments is still orders of magnitudes below the threshold defined by the critical field m2 c3 e
Summary
Pair production from vacuum is gaining interest from both theorists and experimentalists. While remarkable analytic progresses have been made [21, 20, 22], calculating pair production in arbitrary space-time dependent fields is analytically unmanageable and numerically very demanding For this reason, usually only the homogeneous and often only the time independent cases are investigated and used [23, 24, 25]. While the laser-plasma interaction simulation packages developed today are focused on the physical reactions attainable with todays’ laser energies, they expected to form the core of later full featured simulation environments, as it happened in particle and nuclear physics In this context it is extremely important to fully understand the interplay of parameters that influence pair production observ-.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
