Physics – High Energy Physics – High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Scientific paper
2006-07-11
Phys.Rev.Lett.97:140402,2006
Physics
High Energy Physics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
4 pages, 2 figures
Scientific paper
10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.140402
Possible extensions of the standard model of elementary particle physics suggest the existence of particles with small, unquantized electric charge. Photon initiated pair production of millicharged fermions in an external magnetic field would manifest itself as a vacuum magnetic 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 previously considered laboratory searches. Vacuum magnetic birefringence originating from virtual pair production gives a slightly better constraint for masses between 0.1 eV and a few eV. We comment on the possibility that the vacuum magnetic dichroism observed by PVLAS arises from pair production of such millicharged fermions rather than from single production of axion-like particles. Such a scenario can be confirmed or firmly excluded by a search for invisible decays of orthopositronium with a sensitivity of about 10^(-9) in the corresponding branching fraction.
Gies Holger
Jaeckel Joerg
Ringwald Andreas
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