Electron-positron pair production in a bifrequent oscillating electric field

TL;DR

This paper investigates how combining a strong and a perturbative oscillating electric field affects electron-positron pair production from vacuum, revealing resonant effects and enhanced pair yields.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum kinetic approach to analyze pair production in a bifrequent field, highlighting modifications in spectra and increased yields compared to single-mode fields.

Findings

Resonant effects and Rabi-like oscillations are observed in pair spectra.

Pair production is significantly enhanced at large relative Keldysh parameters.

The total number of pairs depends strongly on the intensity of both field modes.

Abstract

Production of electron-positron pairs from the quantum vacuum polarized by the superposition of a strong and a perturbative oscillating electric-field mode is studied. Our outcomes rely on a nonequilibrium quantum field theoretical approach, described by the quantum kinetic Boltzmann-Vlasov equation. By superimposing the perturbative mode, the characteristic resonant effects and Rabi-like frequencies in the single-particle distribution function are modified, as compared to the predictions resulting from the case driven by a strong oscillating field mode only. This is demonstrated in the momentum spectra of the produced pairs. Moreover, the dependence of the total number of pairs on the intensity parameter of each mode is discussed and a strong enhancement found for large values of the relative Keldysh parameter.