Particle production at a finite potential step: transition from Euler–Heisenberg to Klein paradox

Stefan Evans, Johann Rafelski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Spontaneous pair production for spin-1/2 and spin-0 particles is explored in a quantitative manner for a static tanh -Sauter potential step (SS), evaluating the imaginary part of the effective action. We provide finite-valued per unit-surface results, including the exact sharp-edge Klein paradox (KP) limit, which is the upper bound to pair production. At the vacuum instability threshold the spin-0 particle production can surpass that for the spin-1/2 rate. Presenting the effect of two opposite sign Sauter potential steps creating a well we show that spin-0 pair production, contrary to the case of spin-1/2, requires a smoothly sloped wall.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number341
JournalEuropean Physical Journal A
Volume57
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics

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