Search for very light neutral spin-zero bosons at optical frequencies.

ORAL

Abstract

A Hampton-Jefferson Lab-Yale collaboration is working on an experiment (LIPSS) to test one interpretation of the PVLAS experiment. The PVLAS experiment detected a rotation of the plane of polarization of light in a magnetic field in a vacuum. This can be interpreted as due to the production of a very light (meV) neutral boson that couples to two photons. Such a boson would be outside the Standard Model. The LIPSS experiment is looking for the two-step process in which bosons are generated in a magnetic field by a laser beam and then photons are regenerated by the bosons in a second magnetic field. The status of the experiment, being carried out at the Jefferson Lab Free-Electron Laser User Facility, will be reported.

*Authored in part by The Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc. under U.S. DOE Contract No. DE-AC05-84150 and the U.S. Office of Naval Research, and in part under U.S. National Science Foundation awards PHY-0114343 and PHY-0301841.

Authors

  • Kenneth W. McFarlane

    • Hampton University
  • Andrei V. Afanasev

    • Hampton University
  • Roopchan R. Ramdon

    • Hampton University
  • Kevin Beard

    • Jefferson Lab
  • George H. Biallas

    • Jefferson Lab
  • James R. Boyce

    • Jefferson Lab
  • Michelle D. Shinn

    • Jefferson Lab
  • Oliver K. Baker

    • Yale
    • Yale University
  • Minarni Minarni

    • Yale University