The nonequilibrium dynamics beyond the linear response of Weyl semimetals is studied after a sudden switching on of a dc electric field. The resulting current is a nonmonotonic function of time with an initial quick increase in polarization current followed by a power-law decay. Particle-hole creation à la Schwinger dominates for long times when the conduction current takes over the leading role with the total current increasing again. The conductivity estimated from a dynamical calculation within a generalized Drude picture agrees with the one obtained from Kubo's formula. The full distribution function of electron-hole pairs changes from Poissonian for short perturbations to a Gaussian in the long perturbation (Landau-Zener) regime. The vacuum persistence probability of high-energy physics manifests itself in a finite probability of no pair creation and no induced current at all times.

• Received 5 June 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.085122