Schwinger effect in de Sitter space

Abstract: We consider Schwinger pair production in 1+1 dimensional de Sitter space, filled with a constant electric field $E$. This can be thought of as a model for describing false vacuum decay beyond the semiclassical approximation, where pairs of a quantum field $\phi$ of mass $m$ and charge $e$ play the role of vacuum bubbles. We find that the adiabatic "in" vacuum associated with the flat chart develops a space-like expectation value for the current $J$, which manifestly breaks the de Sitter invariance of the background fields. We derive a simple expression for $J(E)$, showing that both "upward" and "downward" tunneling contribute to the build-up of the current. For heavy fields, with $m^2\gg eE,H^2$, the current is exponentially suppressed, in agreement with the results of semiclassical instanton methods. Here $H$ is the inverse de Sitter radius. On the other hand, light fields with $ m \ll H$ lead to a phenomenon of infrared hyperconductivity, where a very small electric field $mH \lesssim eE \ll H^2$ leads to a very large current $J \sim H^3 /E$. We also show that all Hadamard states for $\phi$ necessarily break de Sitter invariance. Finally, we comment on the role of initial conditions, and "persistence of memory" effects.