Strong-field regime within effective field theory

Abstract: Building upon the Covariant Derivative Expansion, we develop a method to compute effective actions that is able to capture non-perturbative effects induced by strong background fields. We demonstrate the method in scalar QED, by deriving the full second-derivative corrections to the scalar Heisenberg--Euler effective action. The corresponding result is interpreted as an effective field theory with three characteristic scales, two of which are large (mass and field strength) in comparison with the remaining one (derivatives of the field). As an application, we show that, at this order, the transseries structure of the Schwinger pair production rate is preserved, even if the involved coefficients are modified. Our analysis also helps clarify recent disagreements concerning the coefficients of this effective action.