Creation of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>q</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mover><mml:mrow><mml:mi>q</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>¯</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:mover></mml:mrow></mml:mrow></mml:math>pairs in a chromoelectric flux tube

Schwinger's result for the rate of pair creation in a uniform external field has been transcribed previously into QCD. We reexamine this problem. The mutual interaction of the pari and strict energy conservation (which were implicitly neglected by Schwinger), while generally negligible in QED, are of major importance in QCD. In the picture of strict color confinement in a tube we derive a new result which is free of these defects.