Effects of quadratic frequency chirping and carrier-envelope phase on Schwinger pair production in polarized electric fields

Abstract

We investigate electron-positron pair production in spatially homogeneous, time-dependent polarized electric fields using the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism, focusing on the effects of symmetric and asymmetric quadratic frequency chirping and the carrier-envelope phase (CEP). Our analysis reveals how these field parameters govern both the momentum-space structure and the overall yield of the produced pairs. Frequency chirping substantially reshapes the momentum distributions by modifying their interference patterns and peak occupations. The momentum distributions are particularly sensitive to weak chirping, whereas strong chirping produces pronounced oscillatory and ring-like structures across all polarization states. The total pair yield increases with chirp strength, with symmetric chirping consistently producing a higher yield than asymmetric chirping for the parameter range considered. Moreover, the sensitivity of the total number density to polarization decreases progressively with increasing chirp strength, becoming negligible in the strongly chirped regime. The CEP further modifies the momentum distributions by altering their shapes and relative peak occupations, with the extent of these changes depending on the polarization state. Our findings establish a theoretical framework for exploring external-field configurations that optimize the yield of Schwinger pair production.