Limits on Low Energy Photon-Photon Scattering from an Experiment on Magnetic Vacuum Birefringence

M. Bregant; G. Cantatore; S. Carusotto; R. Cimino; F. Della Valle; G. Di Domenico; U. Gastaldi; M. Karuza; V. Lozza; E. Milotti; E. Polacco; G. Raiteri; G. Ruoso; E. Zavattini; G. Zavattini

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.78.032006

paper

Limits on Low Energy Photon-Photon Scattering from an Experiment on Magnetic Vacuum Birefringence

arXiv:0805.3036 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.78.032006

Abstract

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 {\bf77} (2008) 032006) at both $λ = 1064$ nm and 532 nm lead to bounds on the parameter {\it A $_{e}$ }, describing non linear effects in QED, of $A_{e}^{(1064)} < 6.6 \cdot 1 0^{- 21}$ T $^{- 2}$ @ 1064 nm and $A_{e}^{(532)} < 6.3 \cdot 1 0^{- 21}$ T $^{- 2}$ @ 532 nm, respectively, at 95% confidence level, compared to the predicted value of $A_{e} = 1.32 \cdot 1 0^{- 24}$ T $^{- 2}$ . The total photon-photon scattering cross section may also be expressed in terms of $A_{e}$ , setting bounds for unpolarized light of $σ_{γ γ}^{(1064)} < 4.6 \cdot 1 0^{- 62}$ m $^{2}$ and $σ_{γ γ}^{(532)} < 2.7 \cdot 1 0^{- 60}$ m $^{2}$ . Compared to the expected QED scattering cross section these results are a factor of $≃ 2 \cdot 1 0^{7}$ higher and represent an improvement of a factor about 500 on previous bounds based on ellipticity measurements and of a factor of about $1 0^{10}$ on bounds based on direct stimulated scattering measurements.

Limits on Low Energy Photon-Photon Scattering from an Experiment on Magnetic Vacuum Birefringence

Abstract

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