Experimental observation of optical rotation generated in vacuum by a magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper reports the first experimental detection of optical rotation in vacuum caused by a magnetic field, supporting the existence of hypothetical light, neutral, spin-zero particles.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of vacuum optical rotation under a magnetic field, offering evidence for new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Findings

Measured vacuum optical rotation: (3.9+/-0.5)e-12 rad/pass

Rotation observed at 5 T with 44000 passes

Results suggest possible existence of light, neutral, spin-zero particles

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of a light polarization rotation in vacuum in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Assuming that data distribution is Gaussian, the average measured rotation is (3.9+/-0.5)e-12 rad/pass, at 5 T with 44000 passes through a 1m long magnet, with lambda = 1064 nm. The relevance of this result in terms of the existence of a light, neutral, spin-zero particle is discussed.