Abstract
Electron-positron pair production in strong electric fields, i.e., the Sauter-Schwinger effect, is studied using the real-time Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism. Hereby, the electric field is modeled to be a homogeneous, single-pulse field with subcritical peak field strength. Momentum spectra are calculated for four different polarizations - linear, elliptic, near-circular elliptic or circular - as well as a number of linear frequency chirps. With details depending on the chosen polarization the frequency chirps lead to strong interference effects and thus quite substantial changes in the momentum spectra. The resulting produced pairs' number densities depend non-linearly on the parameter characterizing the polarization and are very sensitive to variations of the chirp parameter. For some of the investigated frequency chirps this can provide an enhancement of the number density by three to four orders of magnitude.
Highlights
Electron-positron pair production in strong electric fields, known as the Sauter-Schwinger effect, is a long-standing theoretical prediction [1,2,3], which is, not yet experimentally verified; for a recent review, see, e.g., [4]
We are aware that the pulse length is hardly sufficient to provide a clean multi-photon signal, and that a value of b 1⁄4 0.06 m2 is already too large to be classified as a “normal chirp”, the goal of the present exploratory study is a qualitative understanding of the influence of chirps on the produced number densities of pairs and the related momenta spectra for different polarizations, and to this end the chosen parameter sets are very suitable
We examine the main results for the number density of the produced particles for several chirp parameters for the different polarization
Summary
Electron-positron (eþe−) pair production in strong electric fields, known as the Sauter-Schwinger effect, is a long-standing theoretical prediction [1,2,3], which is, not yet experimentally verified; for a recent review, see, e.g., [4]. Due to limitations in instruments, it is much harder to produce a perfect circularly polarized field than an These two values have been chosen for the chirp parameter because they present a typical “normal chirp” and a kind of maximally large chirp b 1⁄4 ω=τ, respectively. We are aware that the pulse length is hardly sufficient to provide a clean multi-photon signal, and that a value of b 1⁄4 0.06 m2 is already too large to be classified as a “normal chirp”, the goal of the present exploratory study is a qualitative understanding of the influence of chirps on the produced number densities of pairs and the related momenta spectra for different polarizations, and to this end the chosen parameter sets are very suitable.
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