Abstract
The theory of Quantum Electrodynamics predicts the “spontaneous” production of electron-positron pairs in the presence of strong electric fields. Collisions of heavy ions with a combined nuclear charge exceeding the value of 172 are expected to provide the required supercritical field at least transiently. Extensive experimental searches performed about two decades ago, mainly at GSI, have confirmed the expected strong enhancement of pair production in high-Z collisions. The short time scales involved, however, have prevented an unequivocal confirmation of the mechanism of supercritical pair production. We revisit this problem in the view of recent results from nuclear reaction theory. If reactions with a prolonged lifetime approaching \(10^{-20}\) s can be selected using suitable coincidence conditions, it should be possible to experimentally verify the vacuum decay of QED.
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