Interference effect in the photoproduction of electron-positron pairs on a nucleus in the field of two light waves

Abstract

In the general relativistic case, the nonresonance photoproduction of electron-positron pairs on a nucleus in the field of two circularly polarized light waves propagating in one direction is theoretically investigated. It is shown that there are two essentially different kinematical regions: the noninterference region, where the Bunkin-Fedorov quantum parameters play the role of multiphoton parameters, and the interference region, where interference effects are important and where quantum interference parameters are treated as multiphoton parameters. The interference effect is found in the photoproduction of an electron-positron pair on a nucleus in the field of two light waves. This effect occurs in the interference region and is due to the production of an electron-positron pair in the plane spanned by the light wave vector and the incident-photon momentum and to stimulated correlated emission and absorption of photons of the two waves. The cross sections for pair photoproduction on a nucleus in the above kinematical regions are determined for moderately strong fields. It is shown that, in the interference region, the partial cross sections for the case where there is a correlated emission (absorption) of the same number of photons of the two waves can significantly exceed the corresponding cross sections in any other geometry.