Schwinger Pair Creation of Kaluza-Klein Particles: Pair Creation Without Tunneling

Authors

Tamar Friedmann, Princeton UniversityFollow
Herman Verlinde, Princeton University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2005

Publication Title

Physical Review D

Abstract

We study Schwinger pair creation of charged Kaluza-Klein (KK) particles from a static KK electric field. We find that the gravitational backreaction of the electric field on the geometry—which is incorporated via the electric KK-Melvin solution—prevents the electrostatic potential from overcoming the rest mass of the KK particles, thus impeding the tunneling mechanism which is often thought of as responsible for the pair creation. However, we find that pair creation still occurs with a finite rate formally similar to the classic Schwinger result, but via an apparently different mechanism, involving a combination of the Unruh effect and vacuum polarization due to the E-field.

Volume

71

Issue

06

First Page

4018

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevD.71.064018

Rights

© 2005 The American Physical Society

Comments

Archived as published.

Recommended Citation

Friedmann, Tamar and Verlinde, Herman, "Schwinger Pair Creation of Kaluza-Klein Particles: Pair Creation Without Tunneling" (2005). Mathematics and Statistics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/mth_facpubs/63