  Volkov states are exact solutions of the Dirac equation in the presence of an
arbitrary plane wave. Volkov states, as well as free photon states, are not
stable in the presence of the background plane-wave field but "decay" as
electrons/positrons can emit photons and photons can transform into
electron-positron pairs. By using the solutions of the corresponding
Schwinger-Dyson equations within the locally-constant field approximation, we
compute the probabilities of nonlinear single Compton scattering and nonlinear
Breit-Wheeler pair production by including the effects of the decay of
electron, positron, and photon states. As a result, we find that the
probabilities of these processes can be expressed as the integral over the
light-cone time of the known probabilities valid for stable states per unit of
light-cone time times a light-cone time-dependent exponential damping function
for each interacting particle. The exponential function for an incoming
(outgoing) either electron/positron or photon at each light-cone time
corresponds to the total probability that either the electron/positron emits a
photon via nonlinear Compton scattering or the photon transforms into an
electron-positron pair via nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production until that
light-cone time (from that light-cone time on). It is interesting that the
exponential damping terms depend not only on the particles momentum but also on
their spin (for electrons/positrons) and polarization (for photons). This
additional dependence on the discrete quantum numbers prevents the application
of the electron/positron spin and photon polarization sum-rules, which
significantly simplify the computations in the perturbative regime.
