Schwinger Effect in Compact Space

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Schwinger effect in a 1+1-dimensional scalar QED model with a compact spatial dimension, revealing new physical regimes and effects through quantum effective action analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of the Schwinger effect in compact space, uncovering new regimes and analytical results not previously reported.

Findings

Identification of two new physical regimes in compact space

Derivation of quantum effective action with a constant electric field

Discovery of previously unreported effects in scalar QED

Abstract

We consider a theory of scalar QED on a spatially compact 1+1-dimensional spacetime. By considering a constant electric field pointing down the compact dimension, we compute the quantum effective action by integrating out the scalar degrees of freedom in the Euclidean sector. Working in the saddle-point approximation we uncover two novel branches/physical regimes upon analytically continuing back to real time and discover a new result, hitherto unreported in previous literature. Implications of our results are discussed.