Measuring the electric dipole moment of the electron in BaF

• Published in: The European physical journal. D, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Vol. 72; no. 11
• Main Authors: Aggarwal, Parul, Bethlem, Hendrick L., Borschevsky, Anastasia, Denis, Malika, Esajas, Kevin, Haase, Pi A. B., Hao, Yongliang, Hoekstra, Steven, Jungmann, Klaus, Meijknecht, Thomas B., Mooij, Maarten C., Timmermans, Rob G. E., Ubachs, Wim, Willmann, Lorenz, Zapara, Artem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.11.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applications of Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos Theory; Atomic; Barium; CP violation; Deceleration; Dipole moments; Electric dipoles; Electric fields; Laser cooling; Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Particle physics; Physical Chemistry; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Information Technology; Quantum Physics; Regular Article; Spectroscopy/Spectrometry; Spintronics; Standard model (particle physics); Molecular Physics and Chemical Physics
• ISSN: 1434-6060; 1434-6079
• DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2018-90192-9

We investigate the merits of a measurement of the permanent electric dipole moment of the electron ( e EDM) with barium monofluoride molecules, thereby searching for phenomena of CP violation beyond those incorporated in the standard model (SM) of particle physics. Although the BaF molecule has a smaller enhancement factor in terms of the effective electric field than other molecules used in current studies (YbF, ThO and ThF + ), we show that a competitive measurement is possible by combining Stark-deceleration, laser-cooling and an intense primary cold source of BaF molecules. With the long coherent interaction times obtainable in a cold beam of BaF, a sensitivity of 5 × 10 −30 e⋅cm for an e EDM is feasible. We describe the rationale, the challenges and the experimental methods envisioned to achieve this target. Graphical abstract