Particle Production in Strong Electromagnetic Fields and Local Approximations

Abstract

We investigate the phenomenon of electron–positron pair production in intense external backgrounds within the strong-field regime. We perform nonperturbative calculations by solving the quantum kinetic equations, and obtain the momentum distributions of particles created and the total number of pairs. In particular, we analyze the validity of the locally constant field approximation (LCFA), which represents a powerful method for treating inhomogeneous external backgrounds. We consider a combination of two consecutive time-dependent Sauter pulses and thoroughly examine the effects of quantum interference and the role of the Pauli exclusion principle. It is shown that the latter can be approximately incorporated within the LCFA when computing the momentum distributions, while the closed-form LCFA expression for the total particle yield completely disregards Pauli blocking. It is demonstrated that in the presence of multiple turning points of classical electron trajectories, one observes interference patterns in the particle spectra, and the LCFA may significantly overestimate the number of pairs. To further elaborate this issue, we perform the analogous calculations in the case of scalar QED. It is shown that the quantum statistics effects enhance the number of bosons produced.

Keywords

• particle production
• electron–positron pairs
• quantum electrodynamics
• strong fields
• Schwinger effect
• locally constant field approximation