No light shining through a wall : new results from a photoregeneration experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports new experimental limits on axion-like particles using a novel pulsed magnetic and laser setup, challenging previous interpretations of optical measurements and advancing the search for these particles.

Contribution

It introduces a pulsed magnetic and laser experiment that sets new limits on axion-like particles, invalidating earlier optical measurement interpretations.

Findings

Axion-like particle inverse coupling constant M > 8×10^5 GeV at m_a ≈ 1 meV

Definitively invalidates the axion interpretation of PVLAS results with >99.9% confidence

Demonstrates the effectiveness of pulsed setup in axion searches

Abstract

Recently, axion-like particle search has received renewed interest. In particular, several groups have started ``light shining through a wall'' experiments based on magnetic field and laser both continuous, which is very demanding in terms of detector background. We present here the 2$\sigma$ limits obtained so far with our novel set-up consisting of a pulsed magnetic field and a pulsed laser. In particular, we have found that the axion-like particle two photons inverse coupling constant $M$ is $> 8\times 10^5$ GeV provided that the particle mass $m_\mathrm{a} \sim$ 1 meV. Our results definitively invalidate the axion interpretation of the original PVLAS optical measurements with a confidence level greater than 99.9%.