Electron-Positron Pair Production in an Elliptic Polarized Time Varying Field

By using the worldline instanton method we investigate the electron-positron pair production rate from a vacuum in the presence of a time-dependent field with general elliptic polarization. It is found that as field polarization changes from a linear to a circular one, the pair production rate would change to some extent. When field strength is weak while frequency is high, the pair production rate changes significantly with polarization. However, when field strength is strong while frequency is low, the pair production rate from a vacuum is insensitive to field polarization and the results of the pair production rate are the same as those in a constant field. Our results are compared with previous work and the implications of our study are briefly discussed.