Vacuum magnetic linear birefringence using pulsed fields: the BMV experiment

Agathe Cadène (1) , Paul Berceau (1) , M. Fouché (1) , Rémy Battesti (1) , Carlo Rizzo (1)

1 LNCMI-T - Laboratoire national des champs magnétiques intenses - Toulouse

In this letter we present the measurement of the vacuum magnetic birefringence obtained using the first generation setup of the BMV experiment. In particular, we detail our procedure of data acquisition and our analysis which takes into account the symmetry properties of raw data with respect to the orientation of the magnetic field and the sign of the cavity birefringence. Our current value of vacuum magnetic linear birefringence k_CM was obtained with about 100 magnetic pulses and a maximum field of 6.5 T. We get k_CM = (-7.4 \pm 8.7).10^{-21} T^{-2} at 3 sigma confidence level. Our result is a clear validation of our innovative experimental method.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Agathe Cadène, Paul Berceau, M. Fouché, Rémy Battesti, Carlo Rizzo. Vacuum magnetic linear birefringence using pulsed fields: the BMV experiment. 2013. ⟨hal-00793105v1⟩