Potential analysis in holographic Schwinger effect

A bstract We analyze electrostatic potentials in the holographic Schwinger effect. The potential barrier for the pair production is estimated by a static potential consisting of static mass energies, an electric potential from an external electric-field, and the Coulomb potential between a particle and an antiparticle. Given that the Coulomb potential is supposed to be evaluated by the minimal surface attaching on the conformal boundary as usual, the critical field, where the potential barrier vanishes, exhibits a deviation of 30% from the one obtained from the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) action. We reconsider this issue by reexamining the Coulomb-potential part, which is evaluated by the classical action of a string solution attaching on a probe D3-brane sitting at an intermediate position in the bulk AdS. Then the resulting critical-field completely agrees with the DBI result. This agreement gives rise to a strong support for the holographic scenario. We also discuss the finite-temperature case and the temperature-dependent critical-field also agrees with the DBI result.