Effect of time-dependent inhomogeneous magnetic fields on the particle momentum spectrum in electron-positron pair production

Abstract

Electron-positron pair production in spatially and temporally inhomogeneous electric and magnetic fields is studied within the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism (quantum kinetic theory) through computing the corresponding Wigner functions. The focus is on discussing the particle momentum spectrum regarding signatures of Schwinger and multiphoton pair production. Special emphasis is put on studying the impact of a strong dynamical magnetic field on the particle distribution functions. As the equal-time Wigner approach is formulated in terms of partial integro-differential equations an entire section of the manuscript is dedicated to present numerical solution techniques applicable to Wigner function approaches in general.