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arXiv · 1407.3584

Dynamically assisted Sauter-Schwinger effect in inhomogeneous electric fields

Christian Schneider·Ralf Schützhold
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Abstract

Via the worldline instanton method, we study electron-positron pair creation by a strong electric field of the profile $E/\cosh^2(kx)$ superimposed by a weaker pulse $E'/\cosh^2(\omega t)$. If the temporal Keldysh parameter $\gamma_\omega=m\omega/(qE)$ exceeds a threshold value $\gamma_\omega^{\rm crit}$ which depends on the spatial Keldysh parameter $\gamma_k=mk/(qE)$, we find a drastic enhancement of the pair creation probability -- reporting on what we believe to be the first analytic non-perturbative result for the interplay between temporal and spatial field dependences $E(t,x)$ in the Sauter-Schwinger effect.

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Christian Schneider, Ralf Schützhold. 2014-07-14. Dynamically assisted Sauter-Schwinger effect in inhomogeneous electric fields. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep02(2016)164

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