Vacuum Magnetic Birefringence Experiment as a probe of Dark Sector

TL;DR

This paper explores how vacuum magnetic birefringence experiments can detect dark sector effects, especially parity violation, by analyzing polarization changes and proposing a new measurement scheme to directly observe parity-violating signals.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized framework for detecting dark sector contributions to VMB, including a novel experimental scheme to directly measure parity violation effects.

Findings

Dark sector neutrinos can induce parity-violating birefringence.

Proposed a new measurement scheme using a ring Fabry-Pérot resonator.

Dark sector effects modify polarization change magnitude and induce parity violation.

Abstract

Vacuum magnetic birefringence (VMB) is a nonlinear electromagnetic effect predicted by QED. In addition to the effect from QED, the effect also has a possibility to probe the dark sector. The effect predicted by QED is parity conservative, but the effect from the dark sector can induce parity violation. To pursue this possibility, we calculated the effect from the dark sector with the generalized Heisenberg-Euler effective Lagrangian that is applicable to parity-violating theories. Various dark sector models exist, among which the contribution of the dark sector neutrinos to the VMB experiment is examined. The contribution comes from the mixing of photon with the dark sector Z boson and violates parity, thus inducing a parity-violating electromagnetic interaction. If the polarization vector is denoted by ${\epsilon}(\theta_i)$ when its direction is rotated by an angle $\theta_i$ from the direction of the applied magnetic field, the change of the polarization from ${\epsilon}(45^\circ)$ to ${\epsilon}(-45^\circ)$ and vice versa are examined. The contribution from the dark sector modifies the magnitude of the polarization change, so it can be detected by measuring the magnitude precisely. In addition to the change in the magnitude, the dark sector also induces parity-violating effects. We also propose a new scheme to measure the effect of parity violation directly. By measuring the change of polarization from ${\epsilon}(0^{\circ})$ to ${\epsilon}(90^\circ)$, and vice versa, with a ring Fabry-P\'erot resonator, one can search for the effect directly. The signal that appears in this scheme is evidence of parity violation from beyond standard model theories.