Solinas P, Amoretti A, Giazotto F
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, via Dodecaneso 33, I-16146 Genova, Italy.
INFN-Sezione di Genova, via Dodecaneso 33, I-16146 Genova, Italy.
Phys Rev Lett. 2021 Mar 19;126(11):117001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.117001.
Since the 1960s a deep and surprising connection has followed the development of superconductivity and quantum field theory. The Anderson-Higgs mechanism and the similarities between the Dirac and Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations are the most intriguing examples. In this last analogy, the massive Dirac particle is identified with a quasiparticle excitation and the fermion mass energy with the superconducting gap energy. Here we follow further this parallelism and show that it predicts an outstanding phenomenon: the superconducting Sauter-Schwinger effect. As in the quantum electrodynamics Schwinger effect, where an electron-positron couple is created from the vacuum by an intense electric field, we show that an electrostatic field can generate two coherent excitations from the superconducting ground-state condensate. Differently from the dissipative thermal excitation, these form a new macroscopically coherent and dissipationless state. We discuss how the superconducting state is weakened by the creation of this kind of excitations. In addition to shedding a different light and suggesting a method for the experimental verification of the Sauter-Schwinger effect, our results pave the way to the understanding and exploitation of the interaction between superconductors and electric fields.
自20世纪60年代以来，超导性的发展与量子场论之间一直存在着深刻且惊人的联系。安德森 - 希格斯机制以及狄拉克方程与博戈留波夫 - 德热纳方程之间的相似性是最引人入胜的例子。在这最后的类比中，有质量的狄拉克粒子被等同于一种准粒子激发，而费米子质量能量被等同于超导能隙能量。在这里，我们进一步探究这种相似性，并表明它预测了一种显著的现象：超导的施温格效应。如同在量子电动力学的施温格效应中，强电场能从真空中产生一对电子 - 正电子，我们表明静电场能从超导基态凝聚体中产生两个相干激发。与耗散的热激发不同，这些激发形成了一种新的宏观相干且无耗散的状态。我们讨论了这种激发的产生如何削弱超导态。除了提供一种不同的视角并提出一种实验验证施温格效应的方法外，我们的结果为理解和利用超导体与电场之间的相互作用铺平了道路。
