Pair creation by a photon in an electric field

The process of pair creation by a photon in a constant and homogeneous electric field is investigated basing on the polarization operator in the field. The total probability of the process is found in a relatively simple form. At high energy the quasiclassical approximation is valid. The corrections to the standard quasiclassical approximation (SQA) are calculated. In the region of relatively low photon energies, where SQA is unapplicable, the new approximation is used. It is shown that in this energy interval the probability of pair creation by a photon in electric field exceeds essentially the corresponding probability in a magnetic field. This approach is valid at the photon energy much larger than the vacuum energy in electric field: omega >> eE/m. For smaller photon energies the low energy approximation is developed. At omega << eE/m the found probability describes the absorption of soft photon by the particles created by an electric field. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.