Nonlocal effective action and particle creation in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>D</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math> dimensions

We compute the particle creation rate in the context of quantum fields in curved spacetimes by evaluating the imaginary part of the effective action up to second order in the curvatures. For arbitrary metrics in dimensions <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mi>D</a:mi><a:mo>≥</a:mo><a:mn>4</a:mn></a:math>, we express the vacuum persistence amplitude in terms of the Ricci scalar and the Weyl tensor, showing that, up to their second power, no particle creation occurs for conformal fields in conformally flat spacetimes. We pinpoint an analogy with the electromagnetic pair creation by writing the squared Weyl tensor invariant in terms of its electric and magnetic parts. In addition, we present an alternative expression for the imaginary part of the effective action employing the Cotton tensor. This is particularly useful in <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mi>D</c:mi><c:mo>=</c:mo><c:mn>3</c:mn></c:math>, where the Weyl tensor trivially vanishes and the Cotton tensor is related to conformal flatness. Finally, we highlight the importance of the threshold for particle creation, a point that has been overlooked in some recent studies.