Electron-positron pair creation by Coulomb and laser fields in the tunneling regime

Electron-positron pair creation due to combined nuclear Coulomb and strong laser fields is investigated for the tunneling regime. The energy spectra and angular distributions of the pair are found analytically. The energy spectrum for each lepton exhibits a sharp maximum located well above the threshold for any polarization of the laser field. The angular distributions of leptons depend on the polarization: for linear polarization, both leptons move predominantly along the laser beam direction; for circular polarization, leptons are emitted in a thin-walled cone centered on the laser beam. The spectral and angular distributions found are governed by the intensity and frequency of the field, and the frequency-independent total pair creation rates comply with the previously known results. A method of calculation-the vicinal approximation-that uses the fact that the pair production takes place in the close vicinity of the nucleus is suggested.