Related papers: PVLAS Experiment: Some Astrophysical Consequences
There exists a growing evidence for the anomalous transparency of the Universe for energetic gamma rays. Popular explanations include conversion of photons into hypothetical axion-like particles (ALPs) and back in astrophysical magnetic…
We study the gravitational lensing in the weak field approximation assuming the presence of a plasma and of a magnetic field around a compact gravitational source. The external magnetic field causes the split of the image, as the…
Scalar particles are a common prediction of many beyond the Standard Model theories. If they are light and cold enough, there is a possibility they may form Bose-Einstein condensates, which will then become gravitationally bound. These…
Very-high energy photons emitted by distant cosmic sources are absorbed on the extragalactic background light (EBL) during their propagation. This effect can be characterized in terms of a photon transfer function at Earth. The presence of…
The large-scale magnetic field of our Galaxy can be probed in three dimensions using Faraday rotation of pulsar signals. We report on the determination of 223 rotation measures from polarization observations of relatively distant southern…
Experimental bounds on induced vacuum magnetic birefringence can be used to improve present photon-photon scattering limits in the electronvolt energy range. Measurements with the PVLAS apparatus (E. Zavattini {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. D…
In a recent paper it is claimed that vacuum birefringence has been experimentally observed for the first time by measuring the degree of polarization of visible light from a Magnetar candidate, a neutron star with a magnetic field…
We study the possibility of evading astrophysical bound on light pseudoscalars. We argue that the solar bounds can be evaded if we have a sufficiently strong self-coupling of the pseudoscalars. The required coupling does not conflict with…
Axion-Like Particles (ALPs), if exist in nature, are expected to mix with photons in the presence of an external magnetic field. The energy range of photons which undergo strong mixing with ALPs depends on the ALP mass, on its coupling with…
The light pseudoscalar particle, dubbed the axion, borne out of the Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong CP problem in QCD remains elusive. One avenue of inferring its existence is through its coupling to electromagnetic radiation. So far,…
Forthcoming radio surveys will include full polarisation information, which can be potentially useful for weak lensing observations. We propose a new method to measure the (integrated) gravitational field between a source and the observer,…
Polarization wiggling is an observational effect of a gravitational field on the polarization of electromagnetic radiation traversing it. We find that in linear gravity, the polarization wiggle rate contributions from scalar, vector and…
Optical rectification of intense, circularly polarized light penetrating a material generates a static magnetic field aligned with the light's direction and proportional to its intensity. Recent experiments have unveiled a substantial,…
The quantum electrodynamical vacuum polarization effects arising in the collision of a high-energy proton beam and a strong, linearly polarized laser field are investigated. The probability that laser photons merge into one photon by…
We describe the principle and the status of the PVLAS experiment which is presently running at the INFN section of Ferrara, Italy, to detect the magnetic birefringence of vacuum. This is related to the QED vacuum structure and can be…
The magnetic field pervading our Galaxy is a crucial constituent of the interstellar medium: it mediates the dynamics of interstellar clouds, the energy density of cosmic rays, and the formation of stars. The field associated with ionized…
Experiments on pion (Goldstone Boson) photoproduction from the nucleon tests the ability to make QCD predictions at confinement scale energies. Experiments with both polarized beams and targets have the potential sensitivity to demonstrate…
Well-motivated extensions of the standard model predict ultra-light and fundamental pseudo-scalar particles (e.g., axions or axion-like particles: ALPs). Similarly to the Primakoff-effect for axions, ALPs can mix with photons and…
Radio synchrotron emission, its polarization and its Faraday rotation are powerful tools to study the strength and structure of interstellar magnetic fields. The total intensity traces the strength and distribution of total magnetic fields.…
Interstellar magnetic field is essential in various astrophysical phenomena and processes. Pulsar halos are a recently discovered class of TeV gamma-ray sources formed by escaping electrons/positrons from pulsars. The morphology of the halo…