A Note on Schwinger Mechanism and a Nonabelian Instability in a Nonabelian Plasma

TL;DR

This paper discusses a nonabelian instability in nonabelian plasmas caused by Schwinger decay of chromoelectric fields, highlighting conditions where stable, coherent field configurations cannot exist.

Contribution

It reveals a new nonabelian instability mechanism in plasmas, linked to Schwinger decay, and clarifies conditions for the absence of stable, coherent field configurations.

Findings

Identifies a nonabelian instability related to Schwinger decay.

Shows instability occurs when Tr(DF)^2 > 0.

Highlights the incompatibility of net color charge with stable field configurations.

Abstract

We point out that there is a nonabelian instability for a nonabelian plasma which does not allow both for a net nonzero color charge and the existence of field configurations which are coherent over a volume $v$ whose size is determined by the chemical potential. The basic process which leads to this result is the Schwinger decay of chromoelectric fields, for the case where the field arises from commutators of constant potentials, rather than as the curl of spacetime dependent potentials. In terms of the fields, instability is obtained when Tr(DF)^2 > 0.