We study the influence of the nonlinearities of vacuum quantum electrodynamics on the propagation of a low-frequency wave traversing an intense electromagnetic field. Cotton-Mouton and Kerr effects on the polarization, as well as the associated birefringence, appear in analogy with the corresponding phenomena in material media. The magnitude of these effects is very small. It is not, however, excluded that they might provide a direct test of photon-photon scattering.

• Received 6 July 1970

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.3.618