Experimental Observation of Optical Rotation Generated in Vacuum by a Magnetic Field
Abstract
We report the experimental observation of a light polarization rotation in vacuum in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Assuming that data distribution is Gaussian, the average measured rotation is (3.9±0.5)×10-12rad/pass, at 5 T with 44 000 passes through a 1 m long magnet, with λ=1064nm. The relevance of this result in terms of the existence of a light, neutral, spin-zero particle is discussed.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- March 2006
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.110406
- arXiv:
- arXiv:hep-ex/0507107
- Bibcode:
- 2006PhRvL..96k0406Z
- Keywords:
-
- 12.20.Fv;
- 07.60.Fs;
- 14.80.Mz;
- Experimental tests;
- Polarimeters and ellipsometers;
- Axions and other Nambu-Goldstone bosons;
- High Energy Physics - Experiment;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters Comment to version 2: minor changes to abstract and final discussion. Added 2 references Comment to version 3: corrected minor typographical errors, eliminated the distinction between scalar and pseudoscalar in the particle interpretation of the result