Holographic Schwinger Effect in Anisotropic Media

TL;DR

This paper investigates how anisotropy affects the holographic Schwinger effect, revealing that increased anisotropy weakens pair production and that the effect varies with direction in the medium.

Contribution

It provides the first analysis of the holographic Schwinger effect in anisotropic backgrounds, highlighting the influence of anisotropy on pair production and potential barriers.

Findings

Maximum pair separation length increases with anisotropy parameter.

Potential barrier height increases at small separations with anisotropy.

Schwinger effect is weaker in anisotropic backgrounds, especially in the transverse direction.

Abstract

According to gauge/gravity correspondence, we study the holographic Schwinger effect within an anisotropic background. Firstly, the separate length of the particle-antiparticle pairs is computed within the context of an anisotropic background which is parameterized by dynamical exponent $\nu$. It is found that the maximum separate length $x$ increases with the increase of dynamical exponent $\nu$. By analyzing the potential energy, we find that the potential barrier increases with the dynamical exponent $\nu$ at a small separate distance. This observation implies that the Schwinger effect within an anisotropic background is comparatively weaker when contrasted with its manifestation in an isotropic background. Finally, we also find that the Schwinger effect in the transverse direction is weakened, compared to the parallel direction in the anisotropic background, which is consistent with the top-down model.