Field-induced decay of quantum vacuum: visualizing pair production in a classical photonic system

TL;DR

This paper proposes a classical photonic system using curved waveguide superlattices to visualize the quantum vacuum decay process, specifically electron-positron pair production, in a controllable and observable manner.

Contribution

It introduces a novel wave optics analogue of vacuum decay, allowing experimental visualization of pair production in a classical photonic setup.

Findings

Successful simulation of pair production as wave packet breakup

Visualization of vacuum decay process in a photonic system

Potential for experimental observation of quantum phenomena

Abstract

The phenomenon of vacuum decay, i.e. electron-positron pair production due to the instability of the quantum electrodynamics vacuum in an external field, is a remarkable prediction of Dirac theory whose experimental observation is still lacking. Here a classic wave optics analogue of vacuum decay, based on light propagation in curved waveguide superlattices, is proposed. Our photonic analogue enables a simple and experimentally-accessible visualization in space of the process of pair production as break up of an initially negative-energy Gaussian wave packet, representing an electron in the Dirac sea, under the influence of an oscillating electric field.