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The production of electron-positron pairs from the quantum vacuum polarized by the superposition of a strong and a perturbative oscillating electric field mode is studied. Our outcomes rely on a nonequilibrium quantum field theoretical approach, described by the quantum kinetic BoltzmannVlasov equation. By superimposing the perturbative mode, the characteristic resonant effects and Rabi-like frequencies in the single-particle distribution function are modified, as compared to the predictions resulting from the case driven by a strong oscillating field mode only. This is demonstrated in the momentum spectra of the produced pairs. Moreover, the dependence of the total number of pairs on the intensity parameter of each mode is discussed and a strong enhancement found for large values of the relative Keldysh parameter.

Moving mirrors have been known as tractable setups modeling Hawking radiation from black holes. In this paper, motivated by recent developments regarding the black hole information problem, we present extensive studies of moving mirrors in conformal field theories by employing both field theoretic as well as holographic methods. Reviewing first the usual field theoretic formulation of moving mirrors, we construct their gravity dual by resorting to the AdS/BCFT construction. Based on our holographic formulation, we then calculate the time evolution of entanglement entropy in various moving mirror models. In doing so, we mainly focus on three different setups: escaping mirror, which models constant Hawking radiation emanating from an eternal black hole; kink mirror, which models an evaporating black hole formed from collapse; and the double escaping mirror, which models two constantly radiating eternal black holes. In particular, by computing the holographic entanglement entropy, we show that the kink mirror gives rise to an ideal Page curve. We also find that an interesting phase transition arises in the case of the double escaping mirror. Furthermore, we argue and provide evidence for an interpretation of moving mirrors in terms of two dimensional Liouville gravity. We also discuss the connection between quantum energy conditions and the time evolution of holographic entanglement entropy in moving mirror models.

The production of particle-antiparticle pairs from the quantum field theoretic ground state in the presence of an external electric field is studied. Starting with the quantum kinetic BoltzmannVlasov equation in four-dimensional spacetime, we obtain the corresponding equations in lower dimensionalities by way of spatial compactification. Our outcomes in 2 + 1-dimensions are applied to bandgap graphene layers, where the charge carriers have the particular property of behaving like light massive Dirac fermions. We calculate the single-particle distribution function for the case of an electric field oscillating in time and show that the creation of particle-hole pairs in this condensed matter system closely resembles electron-positron pair production by the Schwinger effect.