Physics Theory Seminar with Tanmay Vachaspati on Schwinger Pair Production and Non-Abelian Electric Fields

An electric field in pure Maxwell theory is stable. However, if there are charged particles in the theory, the electric field decays due to Schwinger pair production. In pure non-Abelian gauge theories, the gauge particles are themselves charged, leading to the question whether a non-Abelian electric field, such as in a confining string, can be stable. I will discuss electric fields due to certain non-Abelian gauge configurations that are immune to Schwinger pair production and describe an "electric string" solution composed of such electric fields.