Schwinger effect in compact space

Abstract

We consider a theory of scalar QED on a spatially compact 1+1-dimensional spacetime. By considering a constant electric field pointing down the compact dimension, we compute the quantum effective action by integrating out the scalar degrees of freedom in the Euclidean sector. Working in the saddle-point approximation we uncover two novel branches/physical regimes upon analytically continuing back to real time and discover a new result, hitherto unreported in previous literature. Implications of our results are discussed.