Charge asymmetry in the differential cross section of high-energy e+e- photoproduction in the field of a heavy atom

First quasiclassical correction to the differential cross section of high-energy electron-positron photoproduction in the electric field of a heavy atom is obtained with the exact account of the field. This correction is responsible for the charge asymmetry ${\cal A}$ in this process. When the transverse momentum of at least one of the produced particles is much larger than the electron mass $m$, the charge asymmetry can be as large as tens percent. We also estimate the contribution $\tilde{\cal A}$ to the charge asymmetry coming from the Compton-type diagram. For heavy nuclei, this contribution is negligible. For light nuclei, $\tilde{\cal A}$ is noticeable only when the angle between the momenta of electron and positron is of order of $m/\omega$ ($\omega$ is the photon energy) while the transverse momenta of both particles are much larger than $m$.