SPONTANEOUS FERMION PRODUCTION BY A SUPERCRITICAL POTENTIAL WELL

A second-quantized theory of electrons and positrons in a deep time-de pendent potential well is discussed. It is shown that positron product ion from the well is a natural consequence of Dirac's hole theory when the strength of the well becomes supercritical. A formalism is develo ped whereby the amplitude for the emission of a positron of a given mo mentum can be calculated. The difference between positron production a nd electron-positron pair production is demonstrated. Considerations o f the vacuum charge and of Levinson's theorem are required for a full description of the problem.