Search

The nature of light, the existence of magnetism, the physical meaning of a vacuum are problems so deeply related to philosophy that they have been discussed for thousands of years. In this paper, we concentrate ourselves on a question that concerns the three of them: does light speed in a vacuum change when a magnetic field is present? The experimental answer to this fundamental question has not yet been given even if it has been stated in modern terms for more than a century. To fully understand the importance of such a question in physics, we review the main facts and concepts from the historical point of view., Comment: 31 pages, 17 figures; corrected reference formatting

In this paper, we describe a novel pulsed magnet, called Foil Coil, which can deliver a field transverse to the light propagation of more than 10 T over about 0.8 meters operating without cryogenic equipment. It has been designed for linear magnetic birefringence measurements. We report on testing the coil, and also show some physics data taken in vacuum during its commissioning in the framework of the BMV apparatus, with special attention to noise induced by the pulse itself. Finally, we compare the preliminary results obtained here, with data from the previous BMV coil.

QED vacuum can be polarized and magnetized by an external electromagnetic field, therefore acting as a birefringent medium. This effect has not yet been measured. In this paper, after having recalled the main facts concerning Vacuum Magnetic Birefringence polarimetry detection method and the related noise sources, we detail our Monte Carlo simulation of a pulsed magnetic field data run. Our Monte Carlo results are optimized to match BMV experiment 2014 data. We show that our Monte Carlo approach can reproduce experimental results giving an important insight to the systematic effects limiting experiment sensitivity.