Zavattini E, Zavattini G, Ruoso G, Polacco E, Milotti E, Karuza M, Gastaldi U, Di Domenico G, Della Valle F, Cimino R, Carusotto S, Cantatore G, Bregant M. Experimental observation of optical rotation generated in vacuum by a magnetic field.
Phys Rev Lett 2006;
96:110406. [PMID:
16605804 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.96.110406]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2005] [Revised: 02/08/2006] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
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) x 10(-12) rad/pass, at 5 T with 44 000 passes through a 1 m long magnet, with lambda = 1064 nm. The relevance of this result in terms of the existence of a light, neutral, spin-zero particle is discussed.
Collapse