Vacuum Instability and Pair Nucleation in a Dissipative Medium

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum dissipation affects vacuum decay and pair nucleation in a (2+1)-dimensional system under a static electromagnetic field, with potential applications to superconducting thin films.

Contribution

It provides a unified theoretical framework for understanding pair nucleation with dissipation, incorporating string theory, Born-Infeld action, and effects of background potentials.

Findings

Derived the Caldeira-Leggett dissipation mechanism within string theory.

Calculated pair production rates including background potential and Coulomb attraction.

Identified dissipation-driven localization effects that influence pair nucleation.

Abstract

We present a systematic and unifying treatment of the problem of spontaneous nucleation of particle-antiparticle pairs in a (2+1)-dimensional system due to a static and uniform electromagnetic-like field, in the presence of quantum dissipation. We first describe a direct derivation of the Caldeira-Leggett type of mechanism for quantum dissipation within the context of string theory and of the ensuing Born-Infeld action, pointing out the difference with the physical context in which vacuum decay can occur. We then evaluate the particle-antiparticle pair production rate, working out all the details of the calculation and including also the effects of a possible periodic background potential and of the Coulomb-like particle-antiparticle attraction. The former induces a dissipation-driven localization which interferes with the effect of the driving electric-like field. We also hint at a possible application to the problem of the decay of a supercurrent in a superconducting thin film due to vortex-antivortex nucleation in the presence of a pinning lattice.