Particle production in the central rapidity region

Abstract

We study pair production from a strong electric field in boost-invariant coordinates as a simple model for the central rapidity region of a heavy-ion collision. We derive and solve the renormalized equations for the time evolution of the mean electric field and current of the produced particles, when the field is taken to be a function only of the fluid proper time $τ= \sqrt{t^2-z^2}$. We find that a relativistic transport theory with a Schwinger source term modified to take Pauli blocking (or Bose enhancement) into account gives a good description of the numerical solution to the field equations. We also compute the renormalized energy-momentum tensor of the produced particles and compare the effective pressure, energy and entropy density to that expected from hydrodynamic models of energy and momentum flow of the plasma.