Speaker
Description
Pair creation in extremely strong electric background fields— the Sauter–Schwinger effect—has long been predicted theoretically. However the time and length scales over which particles are formed, has remained difficult to determine.
In this work, we investigate these temporal and spatial scales by analysing the time evolution of physical observables in spatially and temporally structured electric fields using the Dirac–Heisenberg–Wigner formalism.
To interpret the behaviour of these observables at intermediate times, we introduce a hypothetical procedure in which the external field is switched off at a given instant in time.[1] This approach enables us to examine particle and charge densities at pre-asymptotic times.
Based on this method, we identify distinct time scales in both position and momentum space. Furthermore, we carry out a systematic parameter study and extract power-law dependencies of these time scales for pair production driven by a single Sauter pulse [2] and show that in the case of the dynamically assisted Schwinger effect, the pair production process seems to happen in a significantly shorter time [3].
References:
[1] A. Ilderton, Phys. Rev. D 105, 016021 (2022)
[2] M.Diez, R.Alkofer, C.Kohlfürst, Phys. Lett. B 844, 138063 (2023)
[3] M.Diez, R.Alkofer, C.Kohlfürst, „Temporal and Spatial Scales in Particle production from Ultra-Strong Fields”, in preparation