Fermion production in gauge theories
| Date/Time: | Tuesday, 12 Nov 2013 from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm |
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| Location: | A401 Zaffarano Hall |
| Contact: | |
| Phone: | 515-294-8894 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
We investigate the production of fermions by strong background fields in Abelian gauge theories ('Schwinger effect'). We compute the non-equilibrium time evolution of gauge-invariant observables and investigate the decay of the field due to the backreaction mechanism. We discuss distinctive features of the momentum spectrum of created particles (3+1 dimensional QED) and establish a two-stage process in the dynamics of string breaking (1+1 dimensional QED). We indicate how to extend the current study to non-Abelian gauge theories to describe, e.g., quark production from gluon fields at the early stages of relativistic heavy-ion collisions.