2007/08/31 by Danielle Allor, Thomas D. Cohen, David A. McGady · 2 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Graphene research and applications #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall #hep-ph #hep-th #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.78.096009
published as Phys.Rev.D78:096009,2008 · Extensive revisions. The distinction between the vacuum decay rate and the pair production rate in the Schwinger mechanism is now stressed. The discussion of quality of sample needed for a viable experimental test has been significantly expanded. References added
arxiv created 2008/09/22 · openalex publication_date 2008/11/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Schwinger mechanism, the production of charged particle-antiparticle pairs in a macroscopic external electric field, is derived for 2+1-dimensional theories. The rate of pair production per unit area for four species of massless fermions, with charge q, in a constant electric field E is given by \ensuremathπ^\ensuremath-2\ensuremathℏ^\ensuremath-3/2\stackrel\texttildelowc^\ensuremath-1/2(qE)3/2 where \stackrel\texttildelowc is the speed of light for the two-dimensional system. To the extent undoped graphene behaves like the quantum field-theoretic vacuum for massless fermions in 2+1 dimensions, the Schwinger mechanism should be testable experimentally. A possible experimental configuration for this is proposed. Effects due to deviations from this idealized picture of graphene are briefly considered. It is argued that with present day samples of graphene, tests of the Schwinger formula may be possible.