Multiphoton pair production by a highly charged ion in an intense laser field

We investigate electron-positron pair production in the process where the electron-positron vacuum is strongly affected by the collision of an ultrarelativistic nucleus with a super-intense plane-wave laser field. We use an approach which fully accounts for the interaction of the electron-positron vacuum with the laser field, while the treatment of the ion-vacuum interaction is restricted to the first-order of perturbation theory. We calculate the total production rate as a function of the ion energy and of the laser field intensity, respectively. Our results indicate that, with the help of the upcoming accelerator generation, in the near future the process under consideration might be observable for the first time. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.