Quantum Electrodynamics in Strong External Fields

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Based on a new formulation of QED the physics around a hypothetical highly charged nucleus is investigated. Our formalism describes QED in terms of Bose variables and the electron appears as a topological soliton. At Z <greater than or equal> Z_c<similar or equal> 170 the vacuum undergoes the phase transition from the normal to the supercritical ground states. The structure of this transition is elucidated as a first-order phase transition. That is, the process is described as grow of the bubble of the true ground state in the false vacuum. The latent heat is carried away by the bubble wall which is nothing but the spontaneously produced positrons. The ground state of the supercritical vacuum is shown to have a soliton-like structure. The excitations on it is analyzed within the small-fluctuation approximation. New charge-neutral metastable excitations are found. Their energies weakly depend onand takes stable values - 1.6 MeV around the terminate point beyond which the states cease to exist. Near the terminate point the widths of the states are 1 - 10 keV, which are sufficiently narrow to explain GSI e^+e^- peak structure.