Speaker
Description
The interaction of light with light due to zero-point fluctuations of the matter vacuum is a century-old prediction of quantum field theory that has yet to be verified experimentally. This effect can be interpreted as the matter vacuum acquiring nonlinear properties akin to a dielectric medium. Experimental detection of this effect could enable properties of certain beyond-Standard-Model quantum fields to be probed via their virtual contributions to photon-photon scattering, e.g. axion-like particles, millicharged fermions, and quantized gravitons [1].
In this presentation, we outline an all-optical pathway to resolving vacuum nonlinearities using standing-wave laser interferometers which does not require external magnetic fields and use conventional laser sources [2]. We show that the interferometric detection of photon-photon forward scattering predicted by quantum electrodynamics is within reach of laboratory-scale experiments with a sensitivity that improves nonlinearly with the circulating power within the cavity. We outline how such an experiment could be adapted to probe properties of quantum fields beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.
References
[1] Z. Mehdi, J. J. Hope, S. A. Haine, “Signatures of Quantum Gravity in the Gravitational Self-Interaction of Photons,” Physical Review Letters 130, 240203 (2023).
[2] Z. Mehdi, J. J. Hope, S. A. Haine, “Quantum Vacuum Nonlinearities in Laser Interferometers,” arXiv preprint 2609.03314 (2026).
| Primary Abstract Topic | Experiment: Axions and Wave-Like-DM |
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