Dark-field Search for Quantum Vacuum Signals in the Low-Energy Regime
Abstract
We report on the experimental details of a dark-field search for light-by-light scattering signals performed at the High Energy Density (HED) instrument of the European XFEL (EuXFEL) in a pump-probe type experiment colliding the EuXFEL beam with the 300-TW-class near-infrared Relativistic Laser at XFEL (ReLaX) at a center-of-mass photon energy of ω⋆ = 116 eV. Especially in combination with polarization filtering, the dark-field concept allows the signal-to-background ratio to be significantly enhanced and both polarization channels to be recorded. This work elaborates on the experimental setup and the diagnostics used, from the per-shot spatiotemporal-overlap diagnostics, via the polarizing beam splitter, to the characterization of the residual background. Moreover, it provides details on the start-to-end simulations of the setup used for analysis. Accumulating 2751 pump-probe collisions, no excess above background is observed, and an upper limit on the light-by-light scattering cross section of 7×104 times the QED prediction at a 95% confidence level is derived. This is the most stringent bound on low-energy light-by-light scattering achieved to date, representing an improvement by ten orders of magnitude upon previous experimental limits.
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BibTeX
@misc{matheron2026darkfield,
title = {{Dark-field Search for Quantum Vacuum Signals in the Low-Energy Regime}},
author = {Aimé Matheron and Michal Šmíd and Felix Karbstein and Sebastian Göde and Willi Hippler and Robert Lötzsch and Michal Andrzejewski and Sergey Antipov and Carsten Baehtz and Victorien Bouffetier and Erik Brambrink and Jakub Bulička and Samuele Di Dio Cafiso and Rafael Celestre and Jaromír Chalupský and Thomas E. Cowan and Jörg Grenzer and Travis Griffin and Věra Hájková and Jens Hauser and Peter Hilz and Hauke Höppner and Alžběta Horynová and Lingen Huang and Oliver Humphries and Šimon Jelínek and Libor Juha and Pooyan Khademi and Alejandro Laso-García and Masruri Masruri and Nikita Medvedev and Motoaki Nakatsutsumi and Gerhard G. Paulus and Jennifer Popp and Thomas R. Preston and Isabella Probst and Sripati V. Rahul and Thomas Roth and Felipe C. Salgado and Roland Sauerbrey and Alexander Sävert and Hans-Peter Schlenvoigt and Jan Patrick Schwinkendorf and Frank Seiboth and Georgiy Shoulga and Minxue Tang and Abha Thazhathe Peedika and Monika Toncian and Toma Toncian and Vojtěch Vozda and Edgar Weckert and Colin Wessel and Jan Wild and Ulf Zastrau and Matt Zepf},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.39867},
eprint = {2610.39867},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39867},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Dark-field Search for Quantum Vacuum Signals in the Low-Energy Regime
AU - Aimé Matheron
AU - Michal Šmíd
AU - Felix Karbstein
AU - Sebastian Göde
AU - Willi Hippler
AU - Robert Lötzsch
AU - Michal Andrzejewski
AU - Sergey Antipov
AU - Carsten Baehtz
AU - Victorien Bouffetier
AU - Erik Brambrink
AU - Jakub Bulička
AU - Samuele Di Dio Cafiso
AU - Rafael Celestre
AU - Jaromír Chalupský
AU - Thomas E. Cowan
AU - Jörg Grenzer
AU - Travis Griffin
AU - Věra Hájková
AU - Jens Hauser
AU - Peter Hilz
AU - Hauke Höppner
AU - Alžběta Horynová
AU - Lingen Huang
AU - Oliver Humphries
AU - Šimon Jelínek
AU - Libor Juha
AU - Pooyan Khademi
AU - Alejandro Laso-García
AU - Masruri Masruri
AU - Nikita Medvedev
AU - Motoaki Nakatsutsumi
AU - Gerhard G. Paulus
AU - Jennifer Popp
AU - Thomas R. Preston
AU - Isabella Probst
AU - Sripati V. Rahul
AU - Thomas Roth
AU - Felipe C. Salgado
AU - Roland Sauerbrey
AU - Alexander Sävert
AU - Hans-Peter Schlenvoigt
AU - Jan Patrick Schwinkendorf
AU - Frank Seiboth
AU - Georgiy Shoulga
AU - Minxue Tang
AU - Abha Thazhathe Peedika
AU - Monika Toncian
AU - Toma Toncian
AU - Vojtěch Vozda
AU - Edgar Weckert
AU - Colin Wessel
AU - Jan Wild
AU - Ulf Zastrau
AU - Matt Zepf
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.39867
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39867
AB - We report on the experimental details of a dark-field search for light-by-light scattering signals performed at the High Energy Density (HED) instrument of the European XFEL (EuXFEL) in a pump-probe type experiment colliding the EuXFEL beam with the 300-TW-class near-infrared Relativistic Laser at XFEL (ReLaX) at a center-of-mass photon energy of ω_⋆ = 116 eV. Especially in combination with polarization filtering, the dark-field concept allows the signal-to-background ratio to be significantly enhanced and both polarization channels to be recorded. This work elaborates on the experimental setup and the diagnostics used, from the per-shot spatiotemporal-overlap diagnostics, via the polarizing beam splitter, to the characterization of the residual background. Moreover, it provides details on the start-to-end simulations of the setup used for analysis. Accumulating 2751 pump-probe collisions, no excess above background is observed, and an upper limit on the light-by-light scattering cross section of 7×10^4 times the QED prediction at a 95% confidence level is derived. This is the most stringent bound on low-energy light-by-light scattering achieved to date, representing an improvement by ten orders of magnitude upon previous experimental limits.
ER -