# Exceeding the Sauter-Schwinger limit of pair production with a quantum gas

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates quantum simulation of particle-antiparticle pair production using a bosonic quantum gas, surpassing the Sauter-Schwinger limit, and confirms theoretical predictions through experimental results.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum simulation approach for high-field pair production, exceeding the Sauter-Schwinger limit with a bosonic quantum gas in an optical lattice.

## Key findings

- Successfully emulated ultra-strong electric fields beyond the Sauter-Schwinger limit.
- Observed pair production consistent with theoretical predictions.
- Linked the process to Landau-Zener tunneling phenomena.

## Abstract

We quantum-simulated particle-antiparticle pair production with a bosonic quantum gas in an optical lattice by emulating the requisite 1d Dirac equation and uniform electric field. We emulated field strengths far in excess of Sauter-Schwinger's limit for pair production in quantum electrodynamics, and therefore readily produced particles from "the Dirac vacuum" in quantitative agreement with theory. The observed process is equivalently described by Landau-Zener tunneling familiar in the atomic physics context.