Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 35: Quantum Gases (Fermions) II

Q 35.8: Talk

Tuesday, March 6, 2018, 15:45–16:00, K 1.022

Strong field QED effect of spontaneous pair creation from vacuum simulated in a 2D optical lattice — Leonhard Klar, •Nikodem Szpak, and Ralf Schützhold — Faculty of Physics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

QED predicts the decay of quantum vacuum and spontaneous creation of electron--positron pairs for sufficiently strong electric fields which, however, could not be reached in any laboratory so far. A promissing alternative, opening this fascinating field to experiments, is offered by optical lattice based quantum simulators [1,2] in which ultra-cold atoms behave in an analogue way to electrons and positrons in QED. We propose a two-dimensional optical lattice setup filled with cold fermions in which excitations of the ground state behave as particles and antiparticles (holes) and satisfy the relativistic Dirac equation. We calculate the pair production rates for slowly varying time-dependent external fields and show that vacuum destabilization occurs only for supercritical fields as predicted by QED [3].

[1] N. Szpak and R. Schützhold, Phys. Rev. A 84, 050101(R) (2011).

[2] N. Szpak and R. Schützhold, New J. Phys. 14 (2012) 035001.

[3] N. Szpak, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41 (2008) 164059 (7pp).