Ebook: Vacuum Structure in Intense Fields

This Advanced Study Institute (ASI) brought together two distinct ·"schools of approach" to Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) in the presence of intense, external, electromagnetic fields, in an effort to lay a joint foundation for a needed theoretical explanation of the sharp e+ e- "resonances" observed in the scattering of very heavy IOns. These (GSI/Darmstadt) experiments, whose history, latest reconfirmations, and most recent data were presented in three opening sessions (Bokemeyer, Koenig), show a smooth background of positron (e+) production, as a function of e+ kinetic energy. Superimposed upon this background are four very sharp peaks, of narrow widths (~ 30 KeV) and of clear experimental significance ('" 5 standard deviations). Most ofthese peaks correspond to sharp, essentially back-to-back electron-positron emission in the ions' center of mass. Following the approach of "supercritical" potential theory (SPT), where the total ionic charge unit Z satisfies Z > 137, it has been possible to provide a detailed and apparently correct understanding of the smooth e+ e- background; a coherent description of different facets of this approach, emphasizing the nature of the charged, supercritical vacuum, was described by the authors responsible for the invention of SPT (Greiner, Muller, Rafelski). In addition, predictions for related phenomena were outlined by other lecturers using the SPT approach (Bawin, Soff, SsJrensen).

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-ix
Vacuum Structure — An Essay....Pages 1-28
Investigation of (e+e?) Correlations in Heavy Ion Collisions with the Double Orange Spectrometer....Pages 29-38
Positron Line Emission in Very Heavy Ion Collisions: Results from the EPOS Collaboration....Pages 39-50
Strong Coulomb Coupling of Charged Particles....Pages 51-69
Quantum Electrodynamical Corrections in Critical Fields....Pages 71-89
Channeling, Bremsstrahlung and Pair Creation in Single Crystals....Pages 91-118
QED in Strong Coulomb Fields: Charged Vacuum, Atomic Clock, and Correlated, Narrow e+e?-Lines....Pages 119-151
Pair Conversion in Sub- and Supercritical Potentials....Pages 153-156
Production of Exotic Particles in Ultrarelativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions....Pages 157-163
Application of the Proper-Time Method to Non-Perturbative Effects in QED....Pages 165-175
A New Phase of QED in Strong Coupling: A Guide for the Perplexed....Pages 177-193
Continuum Limit of Quenched QED. Critical Exponents and Anomalous Dimensions....Pages 195-221
Non-Perturbative External Field Effects in QED....Pages 223-239
Functional Integrals in the Strong Coupling Regime....Pages 241-255
A Phase Transition of QED, Schwinger’s Proper Time Formalism; Chemical Potential and Electric Field....Pages 257-262
Are There Background Fields That Can Induce QED Phase Transitions at Weak Coupling?....Pages 263-272
New QED, the GSI Peaks, and Background Fields....Pages 273-282
The Gluon Anomaly in the Proton Spin....Pages 283-291
Lectures on Solitons....Pages 293-313
Bosonization and Its Application to Nonperturbative Phenomena in Field Theories....Pages 315-322
Remarks on Cosmic Strings, Aharonov-Bohm Effect and Vacuum Polarization....Pages 323-331
On Power Corrections in Finite Temperature QCD....Pages 333-346
Vacuum Structure in QCD....Pages 347-368
Quantum Vacuum, Confinement, and Acceleration....Pages 369-372
The (First) Three B’s of the Skyrme Model....Pages 373-376
Pair Production in an Electric Field in a Time-Dependent Gauge: A Treatment Parallel to the Cosmological Particle Production....Pages 377-385
Zero-Point Field in Non-Inertial or Confined Systems (Physically Measurable Manifestations of Vacuum)....Pages 387-392
Symplectic and Large-N Gauge Theories....Pages 393-400
Summary Lecture: Vacuum Structure in Intense Fields....Pages 401-406
Back Matter....Pages 407-414
....Pages 415-427