Revisiting semiclassical scalar QED in 1+1 dimensions
Santiago Sanz-Wuhl, Jochen Zahn
TLDR
This paper revisits 1+1D scalar QED, studying backreaction and boundary effects, confirming instability avoidance and observing "over-screening."
Key contributions
- Investigates backreaction of charged scalar quantum fields in 1+1D with boundary effects.
- Corrects and extends prior work on semiclassical scalar QED by Ambjørn & Wolfram.
- Confirms the backreaction mechanism prevents certain instabilities in the system.
- Discovers "over-screening," where high external charges reduce the internal electric field.
Why it matters
This paper refines our understanding of semiclassical scalar QED by correcting and extending previous foundational work. It confirms a crucial mechanism for avoiding instabilities and introduces the novel concept of "over-screening," which impacts how electric fields behave under extreme conditions.
Original Abstract
We study the backreaction of a charged scalar quantum field in the presence of two opposite charges placed at the boundaries of a finite one-dimensional region, with attention to boundary effects. We review, correct, and extend previous corresponding work of Ambjørn \& Wolfram \cite{ambjorn_properties_1983}. Despite notable differences, our analysis confirms the mechanism, discussed by Ambjørn \& Wolfram, by which the incorporation of backreaction avoids certain instabilities. We also observe the interesting phenomenon of ``over-screening'', by which for high external charges an increase of the external charges leads to a decrease of the electric field between the two charges.
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