Holographic Schwinger effect in a confining background with Gauss-Bonnet corrections

TL;DR

This paper investigates how higher-derivative Gauss-Bonnet corrections influence the holographic Schwinger effect in a confining background, revealing that these corrections enhance pair production rates without altering critical exponents.

Contribution

It introduces Gauss-Bonnet terms into the holographic model of the Schwinger effect in a confining phase and analyzes their impact on pair production and critical behavior.

Findings

Gauss-Bonnet term makes pairs lighter and increases production rate.

Critical exponents remain unchanged by Gauss-Bonnet corrections.

Higher-derivative corrections enhance the Schwinger effect in holographic models.

Abstract

We study the effect of higher-derivative terms on holographic Schwinger effect by introducing the Gauss-Bonnet term in the gravity sector. Anti-de Sitter (AdS) soliton background is considered which is dual to confining phase of the boundary field theory. By calculating the potential between the produced pair, we find that larger Gauss-Bonnet factor $\lambda$ makes the pair lighter. We apply numerical method to calculate the production rate for various cases. The results show that the Gauss-Bonnet term enhances the production rate. The critical behaviors near the two critical values of the electric field are also investigated, and it is found that the two critical indexes are not affected by the Gauss-Bonnet term and thus suggests a possible universality.