During 2014 the PVLAS experiment has started data taking with a new apparatus installed at the INFN Section of Ferrara, Italy. The main target of the experiment is the observation of magnetic birefringence of vacuum. According to QED, the ellipticity
generated by the magnetic birefringence of vacuum in the experimental apparatus is expected to be $psi^{rm(QED)} approx 5times10^{-11}$. No ellipticity signal is present so far with a noise floor $psi^{rm(noise)} approx 2.5times10^{-9}$ after 210 hours of data taking. The resulting ellipticity limit provides the best model independent upper limit on the coupling of axions to $gammagamma$ for axion masses above $10^{-3}$eV.
Experimental bounds on induced vacuum magnetic birefringence can be used to improve present photon-photon scattering limits in the electronvolt energy range. Measurements with the PVLAS apparatus (E. Zavattini {it et al.}, Phys. Rev. D {bf77} (2008)
032006) at both $lambda = 1064$ nm and 532 nm lead to bounds on the parameter {it A$_{e}$}, describing non linear effects in QED, of $A_{e}^{(1064)} < 6.6cdot10^{-21}$ T$^{-2}$ @ 1064 nm and $A_{e}^{(532)} < 6.3cdot10^{-21}$ T$^{-2}$ @ 532 nm, respectively, at 95% confidence level, compared to the predicted value of $A_{e}=1.32cdot10^{-24}$ T$^{-2}$. The total photon-photon scattering cross section may also be expressed in terms of $A_e$, setting bounds for unpolarized light of $sigma_{gammagamma}^{(1064)} < 4.6cdot10^{-62}$ m$^{2}$ and $sigma_{gammagamma}^{(532)} < 2.7cdot10^{-60}$ m$^{2}$. Compared to the expected QED scattering cross section these results are a factor of $simeq2cdot10^{7}$ higher and represent an improvement of a factor about 500 on previous bounds based on ellipticity measurements and of a factor of about $10^{10}$ on bounds based on direct stimulated scattering measurements.
