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In the classical Dirac equation with strong potentials, called overcritical, a bound state reaches the negative continuum. In QED the presence of a static overcritical external electric field leads to a charged vacuum and indicates spontaneous particle creation when the overcritical field is switched on. The goal of this work is to clarify whether this effect exists, i.e. if it can be uniquely defined and proved, in time-dependent physical processes. Starting from a fundamental level of the theory we check all mathematical and interpretational steps from the algebra of fields to the very effect. In the first, theoretical part of this thesis we introduce the mathematical formulation of the classical and quantized Dirac theory with their most important results. Using this language we define rigorously the notion of spontaneous particle creation in overcritical fields. First, we give a rigorous definition of resonances as poles of the resolvent or the Green's function and show how eigenvalues become resonances under Hamiltonian perturbations. In particular, we consider essential for overcritical potentials perturbation of eigenvalues at the edge of the continuous spectrum. Next, we gather various adiabatic theorems and discuss well-posedness of the scattering in the adiabatic limit. Then, we construct Fock space representations of the field algebra, study their equivalence and give a unitary implementer of all Bogoliubov transformations induced by unitary transformations of the one-particle Hilbert space as well as by the projector (or vacuum vector) changes as long as they lead to unitarily equivalent Fock representations. We implement in Fock space self-adjoint and unitary operators from the one-particle space, discussing the charge, energy, evolution and scattering operators. Then we introduce the notion of particles and several particle interpretations for time-dependent processes with a different Fock space at every instant of time. We study how the charge, energy and number of particles change in consequence of a change of representation or in implemented evolution or scattering processes, what is especially interesting in presence of overcritical potentials. Using this language we define rigorously the notion of spontaneous particle creation. Then we look for physical processes which show the effect of vacuum decay and spontaneous particle creation exclusively due to the overcriticality of the potential. We consider several processes with static as well as suddenly switched on (and off) static overcritical potentials and conclude that they are unsatisfactory for observation of the spontaneous particle creation. Next, we consider properties of general time-dependent scattering processes with continuous switch on (and off) of an overcritical potential and show that they also fail to produce stable signatures of the particle creation due to overcriticality. Further, we study and successfully define the spontaneous particle creation in adiabatic processes, where the spontaneous antiparticle is created as a result of a resonance (wave packet) decay in the negative continuum. Unfortunately, they lead to physically questionable pair production as the adiabatic limit is approached. Finally, we consider extension of these ideas to non-adiabatic processes involving overcritical potentials and argue that they are the best candidate for showing the spontaneous pair creation in physical processes. Demanding creation of the spontaneous antiparticle in the state corresponding to the overcritical resonance rather quick than slow processes should be considered, with a possibly long frozen overcritical period. In the second part of this thesis we concentrate on a class of spherically symmetric square well potentials with a time-dependent depth. First, we solve the Dirac equation and analyze the structure and behaviour of bound states and appearance of overcriticality. Then, by analytic continuation we find and discuss the behaviour of resonances in overcritical potentials. Next, we derive and solve numerically (introducing a non-uniform continuum discretization for a consistent treatment of narrow peaks) a system of differential equations (coupled channel equations) to calculate particle and antiparticle production spectra for various time-dependent processes including sudden, quick, slow switch on and off of a sub- and overcritical potentials. We discuss in detail how and under which conditions an overcritical resonance decays during the evolution giving rise to the spontaneous production of an antiparticle. We compare the antiparticle production spectrum with the shape of the resonance in the overcritical potential. We study processes, where the overcritical potentials are switched on at different speed and are possibly frozen in the overcritical phase. We prove, in agreement with conclusions of the theoretical part, that the peak (wave packet) in the negative continuum representing a dived bound state partially follows the moving resonance and partially decays at every stage of its evolution. This continuous decay is more intensive in slow processes, while in quick processes the wave packet more precisely follows the resonance. In the adiabatic limit, the whole decay occurs already at the edge of the continuum, resulting in production of antiparticles with vanishing momentum. In contrast, in quick switch on processes with delay in the overcritical phase, the spectrum of the created antiparticles agrees best with the shape of the resonance. Finally, we address the question how much information about the time-dependent potential can be reconstructed from the scattering data, represented by the particle production spectrum. We propose a simple approximation method (master equation) basing on an exponential, decoherent decay of time-dependent resonances for prediction of particle creation spectra and obtain a good agreement with the results of full numerical calculations. Additionally, we discuss various sources of errors introduced by the numerical discretization, find estimations for them and prove convergence of the numerical schemes.
HADES : ein Dielektronenspekrometer hoher Akzeptanz für relativistische Schwerionenkollisionen
(1995)
Das Dielektronenspektrometer HADES (High Acceptance Dielectron Spectrometer) wird gegenwärtig am Schwerionensynchrotron der Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (Darmstadt) aufgebaut. Die Spektroskopie von Elektron-Positron-Paaren (Dielektronen) aus Kern-Kern-Kollisonen mit Projektilenergien von 1 bis 2 GeV/Nukleon verspricht einen Einblick in die Eigenschaften von Hadronen bei Dichten, die das Dreifache von normaler Kerndichte erreichen. Es wird erwartet, daß sich die Massenverteilung der unterhalb der Schwelle erzeugten leichten Vektormesonen rho. omega und phi anhand ihres Zerfalls in Dielektronen experimentell untersuchen läßt. Die Beobachtung von Massenänderungen kann Hinweise auf die Restauration der im Vakuum gebrochenen chiralen Symmetrie geben. Die Eigenschaften des Spektrometers wurden in der vorliegenden Arbeit mit Simulationsrechnungen (GEANT) untersucht und optimiert. Zur Leptonenidentifizierung dient ein ortsempfindlicher Cerenkov-Zähler (RICH1) mit Gasradiator, azimutal symmetrischem Spiegel und V-Photonendetektor. Durch die geometrische Anordnung des RICH und mit sechs supraleitenden Spulen in toroidaler Anordung erreicht HADES eine Polarwinkelakzeptanz von 18 bis 85 Grad. Die Feldverteilung ist der kinematischen Impulsverteilung angepaßt und garantiert Feldfreiheit im RICH. Je ein Paar Minidriftkammern vor und hinter dem Magnetfeldbereich messen die Trajektorie zur anschließenden Rekonstruktion von Impuls, Winkel und Vertex. Zuletzt passieren die Teilchen META, eine Detektorkombination von Szintillatoren und Schauerdetektor. Aus der Multiplizität geladener Teilchen in den Szintillatoren werden zentrale Kollisionen für den Trigger der ersten Stufe selektiert. Den Trigger der zweiten Stufe definieren zwei erkannte Ringe im RICH, die jeweils einem Elektronensignal in META zuzuordnen sind. HADES ist ein Experiment der zweiten Generation. Die Messungen mit dem Dileptonenspektrometer DLS am BEVALAC (Berkeley, USA) ergaben nur für leichte Stoßsysteme e+e- -Spektren guter Statistik. HADES besitzt mit 35% die hundertfache geometrische e+e- - Akzeptanz des DLS. Darüber hinaus können mit einer Massenauflösung von weniger als 1% (DLS 12%) die e+e- -Beiträge von omega- und rho-Meson getrennt werden. Es ist für die Anforderungen von Au+Au-Kollisionen bei hohen Kollisionsraten von 106 pro Sekunde konzipiert. Bei einer Anzahl von bis zu 170 Protonen und 20 geladenen Pionen sowie mehr als 0.1 e+e- -Paaren durch den pi 0-Zerfall werden pro zentralerKollision etwa 10 exp 6 Dielektronen aus dem rho- oder omega-Zerfall erwartet. Leptonen, die aus dem Zerfall verschiedener pi 0-Mesonen stammen, bilden kombinatorische e+e- -Paare, die auch im e+e- -Massenbereich der Vektormesonen beitragen können. Durch Rekonstruktion und durch Methoden der Untergrunderkennung wird der e+e- -Untergrund um nahezu zwei Größenordnungen unterdrückt, während die Effizienz für echte Dielektronen etwa 55% beträgt. Die Leptonen des verbleibenden Untergrunds stammen zu mehr als 50% aus dem pi-0-Dalitz-Zerfall und zu etwa 40% aus externer Paarkonversion von ..-Quanten des Zerfalls pi 0.. , wobei Konversionsprozesse im Radiatorgas und im Target zu gleichen Teilen beitragen. pi 0-Dalitz-Zerfall überwiegt im kombinatorischen Massenspektrum bis 500 MeV/c2 ; oberhalb von 500 MeV/c2 dominiert externe Paarkonversion.