Detection of weakly interacting light vector bosons by coherent scattering

Abstract

We propose a novel experimental method to produce and detect weakly interacting light vector bosons using coherent processes in refractive media. A light vector boson would be produced by a laser photon scattered at a plane interface between two media of different dielectric properties and will be converted back to photon in the similar scattering process. The effect depends strongly on the indices of refraction of the two media. If incident and recovered photons were traveling through extremely high vacuums, limits on the existence of several light vector bosons could be substantially improved.