New Experimental limit on Optical Photon Coupling to Neutral, Scalar Bosons

TL;DR

This paper reports the first sensitive optical photon regeneration experiment searching for scalar couplings to light neutral bosons in the milli-electron volt mass range, setting new experimental limits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel photon regeneration experiment using the 'light shining through a wall' technique to probe scalar photon couplings at unprecedented sensitivity.

Findings

No evidence for scalar coupling was observed.

Established new upper limits on photon coupling strength.

Demonstrated the feasibility of sensitive optical searches for light bosons.

Abstract

We report on the first results of a sensitive search for scalar coupling of photons to a light neutral boson in the mass range of approximately 1.0 milli-electron volts and coupling strength greater than 10$^-6$ GeV$^-1$ using optical photons. This was a photon regeneration experiment using the "light shining through a wall" technique in which laser light was passed through a strong magnetic field upstream of an optical beam dump; regenerated laser light was then searched for downstream of a second magnetic field region optically shielded from the former. Our results show no evidence for scalar coupling in this region of parameter space.