Schwinger effect of extremal Reissner-Nordström black holes

Abstract The Schwinger effect has a variety of physics applications. In the context of black hole physics, it provides a channel for the decay of charged black holes. While the Schwinger rate has been derived for extremal Reissner-Nordström (RN) black hole using the AdS 2 × S 2 geometry of the horiz...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Puxin Lin, Gary Shiu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2025-06-01
Series:Journal of High Energy Physics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2025)017
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract The Schwinger effect has a variety of physics applications. In the context of black hole physics, it provides a channel for the decay of charged black holes. While the Schwinger rate has been derived for extremal Reissner-Nordström (RN) black hole using the AdS 2 × S 2 geometry of the horizon, a full analysis in the whole geometry is lacking, begging the question of whether it is sufficient to ignore contributions away from the horizon. In this paper, we address this problem and obtain the spatial profile of the Schwinger production rate in an asymptotically flat RN black hole spacetime. We find that the Schwinger effect is strongest on the horizon and decays with distance from the horizon, exhibiting a characteristic scale of the Compton wavelength of the particle. The rate is switched off when the particle’s charge-to-mass ratio approaches the corresponding extremality bound for black holes, in accordance with a strong form of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC).
ISSN:1029-8479