English

Light Cone QED in a Homogeneous Electric Background

High Energy Physics - Theory 2017-08-23 v1 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

I present an exact solution for the Heisenberg picture, Dirac electron in the presence of an electric field which depends arbitrarily upon the light cone time parameter x+=(t+x)/2x^+ = (t+x)/\sqrt{2}. This is the largest class of background fields for which the mode functions have ever been obtained. The solution applies to electrons of any mass and in any spacetime dimension. The traditional ampiguity at p+=0p^+ = 0 is explicitly resolved. It turns out that the initial value operators include not only (I+γ0γ1)ψ(I + \gamma^0 \gamma^1) \psi at x+=0x^+ = 0 but also (Iγ0γ1)ψ(I - \gamma^0 \gamma^1) \psi at x=Lx^- = -L. Pair creation is a discrete and instantaneous event on the light cone, so one can compute the particle production rate in real time. In D=1+1D=1+1 dimensions one can also see the anomaly. Another novel feature of the solution is that the expectation value of the currents operators depends non-analytically upon the background field. This seems to suggest a new, strong phase of QED.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0110199,
  title  = {Light Cone QED in a Homogeneous Electric Background},
  author = {R. P. Woodard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0110199},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

9 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX 2 epsilon, talk given at the 6th Workshop on Non-Perturbative QCD, Paris, France, June 5-9, 2001

R2 v1 2026-07-22T15:07:13.365Z