Transition signatures for electron-positron pair creation in space-time inhomogeneous electric field

TL;DR

This paper analyzes electron-positron pair creation in inhomogeneous electric fields, revealing two distinct channels and demonstrating that spatial inhomogeneity significantly influences pair production rates and transition signatures.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-analytical model capturing asymmetric transition signatures and highlights the importance of spatial inhomogeneity in pair creation processes.

Findings

Identification of symmetric and asymmetric transition channels.

Asymmetric channels significantly enhance pair creation.

Neglecting inhomogeneity leads to incorrect transition amplitudes.

Abstract

The process of electron-positron pair creation through multi-photon absorption in a space-time dependent electric field is analyzed using computational quantum field theory. Our findings reveal two distinct pair creation channels: the symmetric and asymmetric transition channels. We propose that the asymmetric transition channel arises from the inherent spatial inhomogeneity of intense laser pulses. By mapping the field-theoretical model of laser-assisted multi-photon pair creation onto a quantum-mechanical time-dependent framework, a semi-analytical solution that captures the asymmetric transition signatures of vacuum decay is derived. Additionally, it is demonstrated that neglecting spatial inhomogeneity leads to erroneous transition amplitudes and incorrect identification of pair creation channels. Furthermore, we have established that asymmetric transition channels substantially enhance the creation of electron-positron pairs for a given laser pulse energy.