Vacuum magnetic linear birefringence using pulsed fields: the BMV experiment

We present the current status of the BMV experiment. Our apparatus is based on an up-to-date resonant optical cavity coupled to a transverse magnetic field. We detail our data acquisition and analysis procedure which takes into account the symmetry properties of the raw data with respect to the orientation of the magnetic field and the sign of the cavity birefringence. The measurement result of the vacuum magnetic linear birefringence k_\mathrm{CM}$presented in this paper was obtained with about 200 magnetic pulses and a maximum field of 6.5\,T, giving a noise floor of about$8 \times 10^{-21}$\,T$^{-2}$at$3\sigma$ confidence level

Towards a first observation of magneto-electric directional anisotropy and linear birefringence in gases

In this contribution to PSAS'2010 we report on recent progress on an experiment aimed at measuring small optical directional anisotropies by frequency metrology in a high finesse ring cavity. We focus on our first experimental goal, the measurement of magneto-electric effects in gases. After a review of the expected effects in our set-up, we present the apparatus and the measurement procedure, showing that we already have the necessary sensitivity to start novel experiments.Comment: Proceedings of PSAS'2010, to be published in Canadian Journal of Physics, 2011 Ja

Magnetic Linear Birefringence Measurements Using Pulsed Fields

In this paper we present the realization of further steps towards the measurement of the magnetic birefringence of the vacuum using pulsed fields. After describing our experiment, we report the calibration of our apparatus using nitrogen gas and we discuss the precision of our measurement giving a detailed error budget. Our best present vacuum upper limit is Dn < 5.0x10^(-20) T^-2 per 4 ms acquisition time. We finally discuss the improvements necessary to reach our final goal.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.

Quantum vacuum magnetic birefringence

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A Photon Regeneration Experiment for Axionlike Particle Search using X-rays

In this letter we describe our novel photon regeneration experiment for the axionlike particle search using a x-ray beam with a photon energy of 50.2 keV and 90.7 keV, two superconducting magnets of 3 T, and a Ge detector with a high quantum efficiency. A counting rate of regenerated photons compatible with zero has been measured. The corresponding limits on the pseudoscalar axionlike particle-two photon coupling constant is obtained as a function of the particle mass. Our setup widens the energy window of purely terrestrial experiments devoted to the axionlike particle search by coupling to two photons. It also opens a new domain of experimental investigation of photon propagation in magnetic fields