Axions, their Relatives and Prospects for the Future

Abstract

The observation of a non-vanishing rotation of linear polarized laser light after passage through a strong magnetic field by the PVLAS collaboration has renewed the interest in light particles coupled to photons. Axions are a species of such particles that is theoretically well motivated. However, the relation between coupling and mass predicted by standard axion models conflicts with the PVLAS observation. Moreover, light particles with a coupling to photons of the strength required to explain PVLAS face trouble from astrophysical bounds. We discuss models that can avoid these bounds. Finally, we present some ideas to test these possible explanations of PVLAS experimentally.

11 pages, 4 figures. Contributed to the ``Third Symposium on Large TPCs for Low Energy Rare Event Detection'' in Paris, December 2006

References in corpus (6)

• An Improved Experimental Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
• Polarized Light Propagating in a Magnetic Field as a Probe of Millicharged Fermions
• Compatibility of CAST search with axion-like interpretation of PVLAS results
• Accelerator Cavities as a Probe of Millicharged Particles
• Higher Harmonics in Non-Linear Vacuum from QED Effects Without Low Mass Intermediate Particles
• Light Propagation in a Background Field for Time-Space Noncommutativity and Axionic Noncommutative QED