Dynamical symmetry breaking in the Nambu-Jona-Lasino model with external gravitational and constant electric fields

An investigation of the Nambu-Jona-Lasino model with external constant electric and weak gravitational fields is carried out in three- and four- dimensional spacetimes. The effective potential of the composite bifermionic fields is calculated keeping terms linear in the curvature, while the electric field effect is treated exactly by means of the proper- time formalism. A rich dynamical symmetry breaking pattern, accompanied by phase transitions which are ruled, independently, by both the curvature and the electric field strength is found. Numerical simulations of the transitions are presented.