Related papers: Optical production and detection of dark matter ca…
The PVLAS experiment operates an ellipsometer which embraces a superconducting dipole magnet and can measure ellipticity and rotation induced by the magnetic field onto linearly polarized light. The sensitivity of the instrument is about…
The PVLAS collaboration is presently assembling a new apparatus (at the INFN section of Ferrara, Italy) to detect vacuum magnetic birefringence (VMB). VMB is related to the structure of the QED vacuum and is predicted by the…
Nonlinear effects in vacuum have been predicted but never observed yet directly. The PVLAS collaboration has long been working on an apparatus aimed at detecting such effects by measuring vacuum magnetic birefringence. Unfortunately the…
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…
We consider using optomechanical accelerometers as resonant detectors for ultralight dark matter. As a concrete example, we describe a detector based on a silicon nitride membrane fixed to a beryllium mirror, forming an optical cavity. The…
We propose a novel experiment to search for axion dark matter which differentiates the phase velocities of the left and right-handed polarized photons. Our optical cavity measures the difference of the resonant frequencies between two…
During 2014 the PVLAS experiment has started data taking with a new apparatus installed at the INFN Section of Ferrara, Italy. The main target of the experiment is the observation of magnetic birefringence of vacuum. According to QED, the…
A number of experiments are underway to detect vacuum birefringence and dichroism -- PVLAS, Q & A, and BMV. Recently, PVLAS experiment has observed optical rotation in vacuum by a magnetic field (vacuum dichroism). Theoretical…
Vacuum magnetic birefringence was predicted long time ago and is still lacking a direct experimental confirmation. Several experimental efforts are striving to reach this goal, and the sequence of results promises a success in the next few…
The PVLAS experiment has built an apparatus to measure rotations and ellipticities induced by a transverse magnetic field onto linearly polarized laser light.Available results can be interpreted as observation of an unexpectedly large…
Among various dark matter candidates, bosonic ultralight fields with masses below 1~eV are well motivated. Recently, a number of novel approaches have been put forward to search for ultralight dark matter candidates using laser…
We discuss the experimental techniques used to date for measuring the changes in polarization state of a laser produced by a strong transverse magnetic field acting in a vacuum. We point out the likely artifacts that can arise in such…
Recently, the PVLAS collaboration has reported evidence for an anomalous rotation of the polarization of light in vacuum in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. This may be explained through the production of a new light spin-zero…
The PVLAS collaboration has observed rotation of the plane of polarization of light passing through a magnetic field in vacuum and has proposed that the effect is due to interaction of photons with very light spin-zero bosons. This would…
We establish strong gravitational lens systems as robust probes of axion-like particles (ALPs) -- a candidate for dark matter. A tiny interaction of photons with ALPs induces birefringence. Multiple images of gravitationally lensed…
Axion is a promising candidate for ultralight dark matter which may cause a polarization rotation of laser light. Recently, a new idea of probing the axion dark matter by optical linear cavities used in the arms of gravitational wave…
Astrophysical observations suggest the existence of an unknown kind of matter in the Universe, in the frame of the $\Lambda$CDM model. The research field of dark matter covers an energy scale going from massive objects to ultra-light scalar…
We suggest a novel experimental method to search for axion dark matter with an optical ring cavity. Our cavity measures the difference of the resonant frequencies between two circular-polarizations of the laser beam. Its technical design…
We revisit birefringence effects associated with the evolution of the polarization of light as it propagates through axion dark matter or the background of a passing gravitational wave (GW). We demonstrate that this can be described by a…
IIn 2006 the PVLAS collaboration reported the observation of an optical rotation generated in vacuum by a magnetic field. To further check against possible instrumental artifacts several upgrades to the PVLAS apparatus have been made during…