Supercritical Instability of Dirac Electrons in the Field of Two Oppositely Charged Nuclei

Authors

  • O. O. Sobol Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15407/ujpe61.09.0759

Keywords:

supercritical instability, wave-function localization change, critical dipole moment, LCAO method

Abstract

The Dirac equation for an electron in a finite dipole potential has been studied within the method of linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO). The Coulomb potential of the nuclei that compose a dipole is regularized, by considering the finite nuclear size. It is shown that if the dipole momentum reaches a certain critical value, the novel type of supercriticality occurs; namely, the wave function of the highest occupied electron bound state changes its localization from the negatively charged nucleus to the positively charged one. This phenomenon can be interpreted as a spontaneous creation of an electron-positron pair in vacuum, with each of the created particles being in the bound state with the corresponding nucleus and partially screening it.

Published

2019-01-05

How to Cite

Sobol, O. O. (2019). Supercritical Instability of Dirac Electrons in the Field of Two Oppositely Charged Nuclei. Ukrainian Journal of Physics, 61(9), 759. https://doi.org/10.15407/ujpe61.09.0759

Issue

Section

Fields and elementary particles