The search for the Schwinger effect: Nonperturbative vacuum pair production

Dunne, Gerald V.

doi:10.1142/S0217751X10049657

The search for the Schwinger effect: Nonperturbative vacuum pair production

Gerald V. Dunne
(
- Connecticut U.
)

2010

10 pages

Part of Quantum field theory under the influence of external conditions. Proceedings, 9th Conference, QFEXT09, Norman, USA, September 21-25, 2009, 475-484

Published in:

Int.J.Mod.Phys.A 25 (2010) 2373-2381

Contribution to:

9th Conference on Quantum Field Theory under the Influence of External Conditions (QFEXT 09): Devoted to the Centenary of H. B. G. Casimir, 475-484

Published: 2010

DOI:

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Abstract: (World Scientific)

The Schwinger effect is the non-perturbative production of electron-positron pairs when an external electric field is applied to the quantum electrodynamical (QED) vacuum. The inherent instability of the vacuum in an electric field was one of the first non-trivial predictions of QED, but the effect is so weak that it has not yet been directly observed. However, there are exciting new developments in ultra-high intensity lasers, which may bring us to the verge of this extreme ultra-relativistic regime. This necessitates a fresh look at both experimental and theoretical aspects of the Schwinger effect. I describe some new theoretical ideas aimed at making this elusive effect observable, by careful shaping of the laser pulses, much as is done [in a different intensity regime] in the fast-developing field of atto-science.

Schwinger effect
non-perturbative
semiclassical

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