Quantum-mechanical approach to the laser-assisted vacuum decay

Lv, Q. Z.; Dong, Shufeng; Lisowski, C.; Pelphrey, R.; Li, Y. T.; Su, Q.; Grobe, R.

doi:10.1103/physreva.97.053416

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…[38] that we could observe interference patterns for the symmetric pulse configurations if the pulses are short enough, and this is not apparent in the semiclassical pictures for the quantum nature of the process. In the current case, we are observing strong nonlocal behavior of the produced particles [14,39] at extreme conditions that may cause resonance effects as a result of multiple pulses being sources for creation of particles which tend to manifest wavelike nature.…”

Section: B Two Symmetric Sauter Pulsesmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…For the extremely narrow spatial extent comparable to the Compton wavelength, we obtain the quantum resonance structure in momentum spectrum for two symmetric or antisymmetric pulses which is not present in the case of corresponding uniform electric fields or inhomogeneous fields with larger spatial extents. It is interesting to relate such oscillatory behaviour to nonlocal feature of Schwinger pair production reported recently in computational quantum field theory approach to QED vacuum [39]. However, further explorations are needed to gain more insight on this resonance effect and provide quantitative explanation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Effects of finite spatial extent on Schwinger pair production

2019

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Electron-positron pair production from vacuum in external electric fields with space and time dependencies is studied numerically using real time Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism. The influence of spatial focusing scale of the electric field on momentum distribution and the total yield of the particles is investigated by considering space-time dependent electric fields in 1+1 dimensions with various temporal configurations. With the decrease of spatial extent of the external field, signatures of the temporal field are weaken in the momentum spectrum. Moreover, in the extremely small spatial extent, novel features emerge due to the combined effects of both temporal and spatial variations. We also find that for dynamically assisted particle production, while the total particle yield drops significantly in small spatial extents, the assistance mechanism tends to increase in these highly inhomogeneous regimes, where the slow and fast pulses are affected differently by the overall spatial inhomogeneity.

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Section: B Two Symmetric Sauter Pulsesmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Effects of finite spatial extent on Schwinger pair production

2019

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“…A rigid mathematical proof for Hund's conjecture and more details about the supercritical pair creation can be found in Ref. [30]. In contrast to the unlimited transmission coefficient for Klein-Gordon equation [see Refs.…”

Section: Optimization Algorithm and The Computational Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal supercritical potentials for the electron-positron pair-creation rate

Unger

Dong

et al. 2019

Phys. Rev. A

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We examine the steady state electron-positron pair creation rate for supercritical electric potentials with arbitrary spatial dependence. The numerical optimization algorithms predict that the set of external fields that can maximize the production rate for positrons with a given energy take non-trivial spatial shapes. We explain the underlying physical mechanisms based on a simple analytical model that exploits resonances among the negative energy eigenstates of the Dirac Hamiltonian. The results are rather encouraging from an experimental perspective as they suggest that one does not require unachievable infinitely large fields to maximize the possible pair creation yield. In fact, in many cases smaller electric fields lead surprisingly to larger yields for given energy ranges.

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“…We show in Figure 3 Finally, we will use this understanding of the vacuum's dressing effect to provide a quantitative model that can reproduce all key features of the spectrum. As detailed in a prior work [11][12][13][14], the energy dependence of the electrons as well as positrons can be related to the quantum mechanical transmission coefficient of an incoming wave packet. If we assume that the spatial widths of the two electric fields at x=-d and x=0 are both infinitely narrow, then this coefficient can be obtained from the stationary energy eigenstates of the corresponding two-step potential.…”

Section: /26/18mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These two fields permit therefore constructive as well as destructive interferences, depending on the wavelength of the Dirac sea state. As the two fields are chosen time-independent, a final positronic state with (positive) energy E can be traced back uniquely to the decay of a single Dirac sea state[12] with a (force-free) negative energy given by E-Vc-Vs that moves to the right (with a negative momentum). The fact that a state with negative momentum has nevertheless a positive probability current density is characteristic of all negative energy states.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%