Garchinger Maier-Leibnitz-Kolloquium: Progress in Experimental Investigations of Vacuum Birefringence

by Prof. Matt Zepf (Helmholtz-Institut Jena und Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena)

Thursday 19 Dec 2024, 16:15 → 17:15 Europe/Berlin

Lecture Hall, ground floor (west) (LMU building, Am Coulombwall 1, campus Garching)

Contrary to the classical view of the vacuum as empty, passive space, the quantum picture of the vacuum contains virtual particles and their anti-particles. For the interaction of electromagnetic waves this results in the superposition principle being violated and the vacuum becoming optically active. For electric field strengths that are a significant fraction of the critical field (also known as the Schwinger Field) of quantum electrodynamics E_S~10^16 V/m, effects such as vacuum birefringence are predicted to  become observable. Different avenues can be pursued experimentally and we will review recent experimental efforts to design experiments capable of measuring a small number of scattered photons in the presence of a large background of probe photons.

Hybrid access via ZOOM:
https://lmu-munich.zoom.us/j/98457332925?pwd=TWc3V1JkSHpyOTBPQVlMelhuNnZ1dz09
Meeting ID: 984 5733 2925
Passcode: 979953

 

kolloquium-19-12-24.pdf