Related papers: Signal Processing in the PVLAS Experiment
Possible extensions of the standard model of elementary particle physics suggest the existence of particles with small, unquantized electric charge. Photon initiated pair production of millicharged fermions in an external magnetic field…
The PVLAS collaboration has announced recently the observation dichroism and birefringence of vacuum permeated by a intense magnetic field. Both are typical predictions of the existence of light particles that, as the QCD axion, interact…
The classical or quantum nature of optical spectroscopy signals is a topic that has attracted great attention recently. Spectroscopic techniques have been classified as quantum or classical depending on the light-source used in their…
Quantum vacuum experiments are becoming a flexible tool for investigating fundamental physics. They are particularly powerful for searching for new light but weakly interacting degrees of freedom and are thus complementary to…
The probability of photon emission of a charged particle traversing a strong field becomes modified if vacuum polarization is considered. This feature is important for fundamental quantum electrodynamics processes present in extreme…
With the aid of large-scale three-dimensional QED-PIC simulations, we describe a realistic experimental configuration to measure collective effects that couple strong field quantum electrodynamics to plasma kinetics. For two counter…
Quasi-elastic scattering processes have long been thought of providing the most promising signal for a first experimental detection of quantum vacuum nonlinearity. A prominent example of such a process is vacuum birefringence. However,…
Recently, the PVLAS collaboration has reported an anomalously large rotation of the polarization of light in the presence of a magnetic field. As a possible explanation they consider the existence of a light pseudoscalar particle coupled to…
The measurement of vacuum polarisation effects, in particular vacuum birefringence, using combined optical and x-ray laser pulses is now actively pursued. Here we briefly examine the feasibility of two alternative setups. The first utilises…
In the present study, we consider the effects of vacuum birefringence and dichroism in strong electromagnetic fields. According to quantum electrodynamics, the vacuum state exhibits different refractive properties depending on the probe…
A nonlinear interaction between photons is observed in a process that involves charge sources. To observe this process in a vacuum, there are a growing number of theoretical and experimental studies. This process may contain exotic…
If the recent PVLAS results on polarization changes of a linearly polarized laser beam passing through a magnetic field are interpreted by an axion-like particle, it is almost certain that it is not a standard QCD axion. Considering this,…
Vacuum birefringence produces a differential phase between orthogonally polarized components of a weak electromagnetic probe in the presence of a strong electromagnetic field. Despite representing a hallmark prediction of quantum…
Vacuum birefringence (VB) is a basic phenomenon predicted in quantum electrodynamics (QED). However, due to the smallness of the signal, conventional magnet-based and extremely intense laser-driven detection methods are still very…
The study of non-equilibrium physics from the perspective of the quantum limits of thermodynamics and fluctuation relations can be experimentally addressed with linear optical systems. We discuss recent experimental investigations in this…
We study the effect of laser photon merging, or equivalently high harmonic generation, in the quantum vacuum subject to inhomogeneous electromagnetic fields. Such a process is facilitated by the effective nonlinear couplings arising from…
The invention of the laser immediately enabled the detection of nonlinear photon-matter interactions, as manifested for example by Franken et al.'s detection of second-harmonic generation. With the recent advancement in high-power,…
We sketch the proposal for a "PVLAS-Phase II" experiment. The main physics goal is to achieve the first direct observation of non-linear effects in electromagnetism predicted by QED and the measurement of the photon-photon scattering cross…
Single atom cavity quantum electrodynamics grants access to nonclassical photon statistics, while electromagnetically induced transparency exhibits a dark state of long coherence time. The combination of the two produces a new light field…
The quantum vacuum of the electromagnetic field is inherently entangled across distinct spatial sub-regions resulting in entangled particle content across these sub-regions. However accessing this particle content in a controlled laboratory…