The vacuum magnetic birefringence experiment: a test for quantum electrodynamicsThis paper was presented at the International Conference on Precision Physics of Simple Atomic Systems, held at École de Physique, les Houches, France, 30 May – 4 June, 2010.

In this contribution to PSAS 2010 we describe the status of the BMV experiment whose goal is to measure the vacuum magnetic birefringence that would represent a pure test for quantum electrodynamics. We present our latest experimental data obtained from Cotton–Mouton measurements of different gases.