Pair creation of particles and black holes in external fields

TL;DR

This paper reviews the quantum process of black hole pair creation in external fields, exploring semiclassical instanton methods and proposing an effective action for soliton pair creation, providing insights into quantum gravity phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified model for calculating pair creation rates using instanton methods, applicable to black holes, particles, and domain walls, advancing theoretical understanding.

Findings

Developed an effective one-loop action for soliton pair creation.

Applied instanton methods to estimate pair creation rates.

Extended results to higher-dimensional domain wall creation.

Abstract

It is well known that massive black holes may form through the gravitational collapse of a massive astrophysical body. Less known is the fact that a black hole can be produced by the quantum process of pair creation in external fields. These black holes may have a mass much lower than their astrophysical counterparts. This mass can be of the order of Planck mass so that quantum effects may be important. This pair creation process can be investigated semiclassically using non-perturbative instanton methods, thus it may be used as a theoretical laboratory to obtain clues for a quantum gravity theory. In this work, we review briefly the history of pair creation of particles and black holes in external fields. In order to present some features of the euclidean instanton method which is used to calculate pair creation rates, we study a simple model of a scalar field and propose an effective one-loop action for a two-dimensional soliton pair creation problem. This action is built from the soliton field itself and the soliton charge is no longer treated as a topological charge but as a Noether charge. The results are also valid straightforwardly to the problem of pair creation rate of domain walls in dimensions greater than 2.