Related papers: PVLAS: probing vacuum with polarized light
A long-standing prediction of quantum electrodynamics, yet to be experimentally observed, is the interaction between real photons in vacuum. As a consequence of this interaction, the vacuum is expected to become birefringent and dichroic if…
Double-resonance optically pumped magnetometers are an attractive instrument for unshielded magnetic field measurements due to their wide dynamic range and high sensitivity. Use of linearly polarised pump light creates alignment in the…
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…
We present the current status and outlook of the optical characterization of the polarimeter at the Bir\'{e}fringence Magn\'etique du Vide (BMV) experiment. BMV is a polarimetric search for the QED predicted anisotropy of vacuum in the…
We report on an optical magnetometer enhanced by vacuum-squeezed light, employing an Mx magnetometer based on $^{87}$Rb vapor in a micrometer-scale cell (~100 $\mu$m). Using the well-established polarization self-rotation effect in a…
An atomic magnetometer operated with elliptically polarized light is investigated theoretically and experimentally. To explore the potential of this magnetometric configuration, the analytical form of the outgoing signal is derived.…
We show theoretically and demonstrate experimentally that collapsing elliptically-polarized laser beams experience a nonlinear ellipse rotation that is highly sensitive to small fluctuations in the input power. For arbitrarily small…
We investigate theoretically the effects of vacuum-induced coherence (VIC) on magneto-optical rotation (MOR). We carry out a model study to show that VIC in the presence of a control laser and a magnetic field can lead to large enhancement…
We put forward a novel method to generate high-brilliance polarized $\gamma$-photon beams via vacuum dichroism (VD)-assisted vacuum birefringence (VB) effect. We split a linearly polarized (LP) laser pulse into two subpulses with the first…
A primordial degree of circular polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background is not observationally excluded. The hypothesis of primordial dichroism can be quantitatively falsified if the plasma is magnetized prior to photon decoupling…
Vacuum polarization (VP) is investigated for the interaction of a polarized $\gamma$-ray beam of GeV photons with a counterpropagating ultraintense laser pulse. In a conventional setup of a vacuum birefringence measurement, a VP signal is…
Stellar energy loss arguments lead to strong constraints on the coupling $\phi \gamma \gamma$ of a light axion-like particle to two photons. Helioscopes, like CAST, are able to put competitive bounds. The PVLAS experiment has recently…
The influence of the strong laser-driven vacuum on a propagating electromagnetic probe wave has been studied in detail. We investigate two scenarios comprising a focused probe laser beam passing through a region of vacuum polarised by an…
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…
We present an in-situ method to measure the birefringence of a single vacuum window by means of microwave spectroscopy on an ensemble of cold atoms. Stress-induced birefringence can cause an ellipticity in the polarization of an initially…
We study a resonant interaction of an elliptically polarized light wave with $^{87}$Rb vapor (D$_1$ line) exposed to a transverse magnetic field. A $5$$\times$$5$$\times$$5$~mm$^3$ glass vapor cell is used for the experiments. The wave…
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…
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…
One interpretation of the unexplained signature observed in the PVLAS experiment invokes a new axion-like particle (ALP) with a two-photon vertex, allowing for photon-ALP oscillations in the presence of magnetic fields. In the range of…
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…