The emission of electron-positron pairs off a probe photon propagating through a polarized short-pulsed electromagnetic (e.g.\ laser) wave field is analyzed. A significant increase of the total cross section of pair production in the subthreshold region is found for decreasing laser pulse duration even in case of moderate laser pulse intensities.
@article{arxiv.1205.3880,
title = {Enhanced subthreshold electron-positron production in short laser pulses},
author = {A. I. Titov and H. Takabe and B. Kampfer and A. Hosaka},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1205.3880},
year = {2015}
}