Photon Decays in the Radiation-Dominated Universe: Scalar Electrodynamics

Abstract

The effect of the creation of an arbitrary number of massive pairs by a photon in the spatially flat model of the radiation-dominated Universe is considered. The process added-up probability is calculated within the framework of scalar quantum electrodynamics conformally related to the metric of a curved spacetime. The rate of photon decay in the radiation-dominated universe as well as the mean number of the created particles have been found. Comparison of the rate of the pair creation in the photon decays with the rate of the pair creation in the photon-photon collisions which take place in the Minkowski spacetime has been carried out. The estimates having been made show the number density of the particles created in the processes of the photon decays in the radiation-dominated Universe to be by a factor of 1030 higher than the number density of the particles created from the vacuum of the free scalar field by the gravitational background.