  A quantum mechanical picture, relating accelerated geodesic deviation to
creation of massive particles via quantum tunneling in curved background
spacetimes, is presented. The effect is analogous to pair production by an
electric field and leads naturally to production of massive particles in de
Sitter and superluminal FRW spacetimes. The probability of particle production
in de Sitter space per unit volume and time is computed in a leading
semiclassical approximation and shown to coincide with the previously obtained
expression.
