On the Threshold for the Pair Production and Localization of Spinless Particles

Abstract

The one-dimensional Klein-Gordon equation is investigated with the most general Lorentz structure for the external potentials. The analysis of the scattering of particles in a step potential with an arbitrary mixing of vector and scalar couplings reveals that the scalar coupling contributes for increasing the threshold energy for the particle-antiparticle pair production. Furthermore, it is shown that the pair production is only feasible whether the vector coupling exceeds the scalar one. An apparent paradox concerning the localization of a particle in an arbitrarily small region of space, due to the presence of the scalar coupling, is solved by introducing the concept of effective Compton wavelength.