EPJ Web of Conferences (Jan 2014)

Describing pair production in inhomogeneous external fields with the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism

  • Berényi Dániel,
  • Varró Sándor,
  • Lévai Péter,
  • Skokov Vladimir V.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20147803001
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 78
p. 03001

Abstract

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In this contribution we present results on pair production from vacuum in QED in case of inhomogeneous external electric fields. The central tool of our description is the relativistic one particle single-time Wigner-function, that describes the evolution of the e+e− densities in phase-space. We compare the influence of homogeneous and inhomogeneous external fields, and find that the inhomogeneity near the Compton-scale increases particle production proportionally to the duration of the electric pulse. We also find, that when the inhomogeneity is restricted to a single direction, a significant component of the pair yield originates from the edge or surface where the electric field gradients are large, in agreement with the prediction of Heisenberg.