G. Petrucci

Experimental method to detect the magnetic birefringence of vacuum

We describe the principle and the status of the PVLAS experiment which is being assembled at INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (Legnaro, Padua, Italy) to look for coherent effects, related to the QED vacuum structure, on the propagation of a polarized light beam in a strong magnetic field.

The measurement of vacuum polarization: The PVLAS experiment

The following is a status report of the experiment PVLAS, whose aim is the measurement of the Polarization of Vacuum, induced by a high magnetic field. It includes a detailed description of the experimental set-up, in which a superconducting dipole magnet of more than 8 T, and a Fabry-Perot optical interferometer with a finesse of more than 130,000 are used. The experiment is in progress at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro in Italy.

PVLAS: Vacuum Birefringence And Production And Detection Of Nearly Massless, Weakly Coupled Particles By Optical Techniques

Abstract Nearly massless particles coupling weakly to two photons constitute suitable candidates as dark matter components: experimental searches investigating this effect by optical techniques have recently been conducted. PVLAS is an experiment designed to measure the vacuum magnetic birefringence and to improve the detection sensitivity for the above particles. It is based on a very sensitive ellipsometer and a 9 T superconducting dipole magnet especially developed for this purpose. With a sensitivity of about 10−8 rad/√Hz and an integration time of 106 s we plan to be able to detect a dichroism corresponding to the production of particles with a coupling constant to two photons of 10-8 GeV-1, provided that particles masses are less than 10−3 eV. With our experimental parameters, the vacuum birefringence effect would give to an ellipticity of 10−11 rad

The PVLAS collaboration: Experimental search for anisotropy of the phase velocity of light in vacuum due to a static magnetic field

After a brief description of the now operating PVLAS apparatus and of its goals, we present and discuss the preliminary experimental results obtained from the first recent measurement runs conducted with the complete setup.

Mechanical and Electrical Noise in the PVLAS Experiment

PVLAS is an experiment which aims at the direct detection of photon‐field scattering: it employs optical methods and a large rotating superconducting magnet. The large, compact structure of the PVLAS experiment is affected by both mechanical and electrical noises. This paper introduces briefly the data analysis methods employed in the experiment and summarizes the mechanical and electrical noise situation.

Testing Quantum Electrodynamics: vacuum polarizability and Casimir forces

Besides ruling the dynamics of electric charged particles and photons in the microscopic domain, quantization of the electromagnetic field gives also rise to macroscopic observable effects. We report on the status of two experiments we are carrying out at the INFN Legnaro Laboratories on macroscopic phenomena of the vacuum of quantum electrodynamics, the birefringence induced by a magnetic field and the Casimir forces.