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Gies H, Jaeckel J, Ringwald A. Polarized light propagating in a magnetic field as a probe for millicharged fermions. Phys Rev Lett. 2006;97(14):140402doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.140402.
Gies, H., Jaeckel, J., & Ringwald, A. (2006). Polarized light propagating in a magnetic field as a probe for millicharged fermions. Physical review letters, 97(14), 140402. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.140402
Gies, Holger, et al. "Polarized light propagating in a magnetic field as a probe for millicharged fermions." Physical review letters vol. 97,14 (2006): 140402. doi: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.140402
Gies H, Jaeckel J, Ringwald A. Polarized light propagating in a magnetic field as a probe for millicharged fermions. Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Oct 06;97(14):140402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.140402. Epub 2006 Oct 02. PMID: 17155223.
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Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Oct 06;97(14):140402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.140402. Epub 2006 Oct 02.

Polarized light propagating in a magnetic field as a probe for millicharged fermions.

Physical review letters

Holger Gies, Joerg Jaeckel, Andreas Ringwald

Affiliations

  1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 16, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany. [email protected]

PMID: 17155223 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.140402

Abstract

Possible extensions of the standard model of particle physics suggest the existence of particles with small, unquantized electric charge. Photon-initiated pair production of millicharged fermions in a magnetic field would manifest itself as a vacuum magnetic (VM) dichroism. We show that laser polarization experiments searching for this effect yield, in the mass range below 0.1 eV, much stronger constraints on millicharged fermions than previous laboratory searches. VM birefringence due to virtual pair production gives a slightly better constraint for masses between 0.1 and a few eV. We comment on the possibility that the VM dichroism observed by PVLAS arises from pair production of such millicharged fermions rather than from single production of axionlike particles. Such a scenario can be confirmed or firmly excluded by a search for invisible decays of orthopositronium with a branching-fraction sensitivity of about 10(-9).

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