Semiclassical Treatment of Induced Schwinger Processes at Finite Temperature

TL;DR

This paper analyzes induced pair production at finite temperature using semiclassical methods, showing that one-loop corrections are exponentially suppressed at low temperatures and aligning with zero-temperature results.

Contribution

It introduces a semiclassical saddle-point approach to compute one-loop corrections in finite-temperature induced Schwinger processes, extending previous zero-temperature analyses.

Findings

One-loop corrections are exponentially small at finite temperature.

Low-temperature results agree with zero-temperature calculations.

Leading exponential and pre-exponential terms are estimated.

Abstract

We consider induced pair production in an external field at finite temperature. One-loop correction to the Green function of a meson is calculated semiclassically within the framework of saddle-point analysis of Schwinger proper time integrals. This correction appears to be exponentially small in terms of inverse temperature dependence. Low-temperature limit is shown to be in full agreement with previously obtained zero-temperature results. The corrections in the low-temperature limits are estimated up to the leading exponential and pre-exponential terms. Comparison is made to earlier calculations of vacuum decay.