Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2009

Keywords

HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS, DEPENDENT DIRAC-EQUATION, X-RAY LASERS, KLEIN, PARADOX, SCHWINGER MECHANISM, VACUUM, SCATTERING, Optics, Physics

Abstract

We examine the spontaneous breakdown of the matter vacuum triggered by an external force of arbitrary strength and spatial and temporal variations. We derive a nonperturbative framework that permits the computation of the complete time evolution of various multiple electron-positron pair probabilities. These time-dependent probabilities can be computed from a generating function as well as from solutions to a set of ratelike equations with coupling constants determined by the single-particle solutions to the time-dependent Dirac equation. This approach might be of relevance to the planned experiments to observe for the first time the laser-induced breakdown process of the vacuum.

Comments

Originally published in Physical Review A by the American Physical Society.

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