We calculate the binding energy, charge radii in $^{126}$Ba--$^{140}$Ba and $^{214}$Ra--$^{228}$Ra using the relativistic mean field theory which includes scalar and vector mesons. We then evaluate the nuclear structure corrections to the weak charges for a series of isotopes of these atoms using different parameters and estimate their uncertainty in the framework of this model. Our results will have important implication for the ongoing and planned parity non-conservation experiments and atomic structure calculations on Ba$^+$ and Ra$^+$.
We use configuration interaction technique to calculate parity non-conservation (PNC) in metastable Xe and Hg [proposal of the experiment in L. Bougas et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 210801 (2012)]. Both, nuclear spin-independent and nuclear spin-dependent (dominated by the nuclear anapole moment) parts of the amplitude are considered. The amplitudes are strongly enhanced by proximity of the states of opposite parity.
We calculate magnetic dipole transition amplitudes in s-s and s-d transitions of Rb, Cs, Ba+, Fr, Ra+, Yb+, Ac2+ and Th3+. These transitions were used or considered to be used for the measurements of parity non-conservation (PNC). We also calculate the magnetic g-factor anomalies for a selection of states, along with electric quadrupole transition amplitudes for s-d transitions in these systems.
We present nuclear spin-independent and dependent parity non-conservation amplitudes for the $[4f^{14}]6s\;^2S_{1/2}-[4f^{14}]5d\;^2D_{3/2}$ transition of $^{171}$Yb$^+$, calculated using perturbed relativistic coupled-cluster theory. As a proxy to estimate theoretical uncertainty of these results we calculate the excitation energies, hyperfine structure constants and E1 transition amplitudes for the important low lying states. The PNC results presented in paper shall be useful in the propose PNC experiments.
Currently the theoretical uncertainty limits the interpretation of the atomic parity non-conservation (PNC) measurements. We calculate the PNC $5s$ - $6s$ electric dipole transition amplitude in rubidium and demonstrate that rubidium is a good candidate to search for new physics beyond the standard model since accuracy of the atomic calculations in rubidium can be higher than in cesium. PNC in cesium is currently the best low-energy test of the standard model, therefore, similar measurements for rubidium present a good option for further progress in the field. We also calculate nuclear spin-de…
We have developed a relativistic coupled-cluster theory to incorporate nuclear spin-dependent interaction Hamiltonians perturbatively. This theory is ideal to calculate parity violating nuclear spin-dependent electric dipole transition amplitudes, $E1_{\rm PNC}^{\rm NSD}$, of heavy atoms. Experimental observation of which is a clear signature of nuclear anapole moment, the dominant source of nuclear spin-dependent parity violation in atoms and ions. We apply the theory to calculate $E1_{\rm PNC}^{\rm NSD}$ of Cs, which to date has provided the best atomic parity violation measurements. We also…
We discuss the prospects for parity non-conservation experiments with highly charged heavy ions. Energy levels and parity mixing for heavy ions with two to five electrons are calculated. We investigate two-photon-transitions and the possibility to observe interference effects between weak-matrix elements and Stark matrix elements for periodic electric field configurations.
The contribution of the axial triangle anomalous graph to the parity non-conservation effect in atoms is evaluated. The final answer looks like the emission of the electric photon by the magnetic dipole. The relative contribution to the parity non-conservation effect in neutral atoms appears to be negligible but is essentially larger in case of multicharged ions.
We have developed a relativistic coupled-cluster theory to incorporate nuclear spin-dependent interaction Hamiltonians perturbatively. In this theory, the coupled-cluster operators in the electronic sector are defined as tensor operators of rank one and we introduce suitable diagrammatic representations. For properties calculations, the electronic part is first calculated and later coupled to the nuclear spin part. The method is ideal to calculate parity violating nuclear spin-dependent electric dipole transition amplitudes, $E1_{\rm PNC}^{\rm NSD}$, of heavy atoms. To validate the proposed me…
We report a new calculation of the parity non-conserving E1 amplitude for the 6p_{1/2} -> 6p_{3/2} transition in Tl. Our result for the reduced matrix element is $E1_{PNC}=-(66.7 \pm 1.7) i 10^{-11} (-Q_W/N)$ a.u. Comparison with the experiment of Vetter et al [PRL,{\bf 74},2658 (1995)] gives the following result for the weak charge of $^{205}$Tl: $Q_W/Q_W^{SM} = 0.97 (\pm 0.01)_{expt} (\pm 0.03)_{theor}$, where $Q_W^{SM}=-116.7$ is the standard model prediction. This result confirms an earlier conclusion based on the analysis of a Cs experiment that atomic PNC experiments are in agreement wit…
Using recent high-precision measurements of electric dipole matrix elements of atomic cesium, we make an improved determination of the scalar ($α$) and vector ($β$) polarizabilities of the cesium $6s \ ^2S_{1/2} \rightarrow 7s \ ^2S_{1/2} $ transition calculated through a sum-over-states method. We report values of $α= -268.82 \ (30) \ a_0^3$ and $β= 27.139 \ (42) \ a_0^3$ with the highest precision to date. We find a discrepancy between our value of $β$ and the past preferred value, resulting in a significant shift in the value of the weak charge $Q_w$ of the cesium nucleus. Future work to re…
We present accurate {\em ab initio} non-perturbative calculations of the Breit correction to the parity non-conserving (PNC) amplitudes of the $6s-7s$ and $6s-5d_{3/2}$ transitions in Cs, $7s-8s$ and $7s-6d_{3/2}$ transitions in Fr, $6s-5d_{3/2}$ transition in Ba$^+$, $7s-6d_{3/2}$ transition in Ra$^+$, and $6p_{1/2} - 6p_{3/2}$ transition in Tl. The results for the $6s-7s$ transition in Cs and $7s-8s$ transition in Fr are in good agreement with other calculations while calculations for other atoms/transitions are presented for the first time. We demonstrate that higher-orders many-body correc…
We discuss the possibility of measuring nuclear anapole moments in atomic Zeeman transitions and perform the necessary calculations. Advantages of using Zeeman transitions include variable transition frequencies and the possibility of enhancement of parity nonconservation effects.
Atomic parity violation has been observed in the 6s^2 1S0 - 5d6s 3D1 408-nm forbidden transition of ytterbium. The parity-violating amplitude is found to be two orders of magnitude larger than in cesium, where the most precise experiments to date have been performed. This is in accordance with theoretical predictions and constitutes the largest atomic parity-violating amplitude yet observed. This also opens the way to future measurements of neutron skins and anapole moments by comparing parity-violating amplitudes for various isotopes and hyperfine components of the transition.
We present a method for measuring nuclear-spin-dependent atomic parity violation without nuclear-spin-independent background. Such measurements can be achieved by observing interference of parity-conserving and parity-violating two-photon J=0-to-1 transitions driven by collinear photons of the same frequency in the presence of an external static magnetic field.
We present a method for measuring atomic parity violation in the absence of static external electric and magnetic fields. Such measurements can be achieved by observing the interference of parity conserving and parity violating two-photon transition amplitudes between energy eigenstates of zero electronic angular momentum. General expressions for induced two-photon transition amplitudes are derived. The signal-to-noise ratio of a two-photon scheme using the 6s^2 1S0 to 6s6p 3P0 transition in ytterbium is estimated.
We present calculations of nuclear-spin-dependent and nuclear-spin-independent parity violating amplitudes in Ba, Ra, Ac+, Th and Pa. Parity nonconservation in these systems is greatly enhanced due to the presence of very close electronic energy levels of opposite parity, large nuclear charge, and strong nuclear enhancement of parity-violating effects. The presented amplitudes constitute several of the largest atomic parity-violating signals predicted so far. Experiments using these systems may be performed to determine values for the nuclear anapole moment, a P-odd T-even nuclear moment given…
A dynamic blue-detuned optical dipole trap with stable $^{87}Rb$ atoms produces a differential ac Stark shift of 18 Hz in the ground state hyperfine transition, and it preserves the ground state hyperfine superpositions for a long coherence time of 180 ms. The trapped atoms undergoing microwave Rabi oscillations are sensitive to a small signal, artificially generated with a second microwave source, phase locked to the first allow- ing a simple and effective method for determining signal-to-noise ratio limits through interference techniques. This provides an excellent means of calibrating sensi…
The atomic parity non-conservation(PNC) experiments has reached accuracies which have important implications for physics beyond the standard model. An optical rotation experiment to measure the atomic PNC of the 3P1(6s6p)--1P1(6s6p) in Yb was proposed recently. Our screened electron-electron coulomb potential multi-configuration Dirac-Fock calculation of th PNC induced E1 transition amplitude of this transition E1_PNC = -96.0 x 10^{-11}iea_0(-Q_W/N) of 171Yb is more than two orders of magnitude larger than E1_PNC(6s-7s) = -0.8991 x 10^{-11}iea_0(-Q_W/N) of 133Cs.
We identify a pair of near-degenerate states of opposite parity in atomic Xe, the $5p^5 10s \,\, ^2[3/2]_2^o$ at $\rm{E}=94759.927$ cm$^{-1}$ and $5p^5 6f \,\, ^2[5/2]_2$ at $\rm{E}= 94759.935$ cm$^{-1}$, for which parity- and time-odd effects are expected to be enhanced by the small energy separation. We present theoretical calculations which indicate narrow widths for both states and we report a calculated value for the weak matrix element, arising from configuration mixing, of $|W|=2.1$ Hz for $^{132}$Xe. In addition, we measured the Stark effect of the $5p^5\,6f$ $^2[5/2]_{2}$ and $5p^5 \,…
Due to electron-nucleus weak interaction, atomic bound states with different parities turn out to be mixed. We discuss a prospect for measuring the mixing parameter between the nearly degenerate metastable states 1s_{1/2} 2s_{1/2} : J = 0 and 1s_{1/2} 2p_{1/2} : J = 0 in heliumlike Uranium. Our analysis is based on the polarization properties of the photons emitted in the two-photon decays of such states.
Feasibility of extracting the proton weak charge from quantum-control measurements of atomic parity violation on the $2s-3s$ or $2s-4s$ transition in hydrogen
本文提出通过氢的 $2s-3s$ 或 $2s-4s$ 跃迁量子控制方案测量原子宇称破坏，以提取质子弱电荷，应对近期 W 玻色子质量异常，并评估了相关计算近似的准确度。
We apply the sum-over-states approach to calculate partial contributions to the parity non-conservation (PNC) in cesium [Porsev {\em et al}, Phys. Rev. D {\bf 82}, 036008 (2010)]. We have found significant corrections to two non-dominating terms coming from the contribution of the core and highly excited states ($n>9$, the so called {\em tail}). When these differences are taken into account the result of Porsev {\em et al}, $E_{\rm PNC} = 0.8906\,(24) \times 10^{-11}i(-Q_W/N)$ changes to $0.8977\,(40)$, coming into good agreement with our previous calculations, $0.8980\,(45)$. The interpretati…
Studying the violation of parity and time-reversal invariance in atomic systems has proven to be a very effective means for testing the electroweak theory at low energy and searching for physics beyond it. Recent developments in both atomic theory and experimental methods have led to the ability to make extremely precise theoretical calculations and experimental measurements of these effects. Such studies are complementary to direct high-energy searches, and can be performed for just a fraction of the cost. We review the recent progress in the field of parity and time-reversal violation in ato…
We estimate the relative contribution of nuclear structure and new physics couplings to the parity non-conserving spin-independent effects in atomic systems, for both single isotopes and isotopic ratios. General expressions are presented to assess the sensitivity of isotopic ratios to neutron skins and to couplings beyond standard model at tree level. The specific coefficients for these contributions are calculated assuming Fermi distribution for proton and neutron nuclear densities for isotopes of Cs, Ba, Sm, Dy, Yb, Pb, Fr, and Ra. The present work aims to provide a guide to the choice of th…
We discuss the propagation of hydrogen atoms in static electric and magnetic fields in a longitudinal atomic beam spin echo (lABSE) apparatus. Depending on the choice of the external fields the atoms may acquire both dynamical and geometrical quantum mechanical phases. As an example of the former, we show first in-beam spin rotation measurements on atomic hydrogen, which are in excellent agreement with theory. Additional calculations of the behaviour of the metastable 2S states of hydrogen reveal that the geometrical phases may exhibit the signature of parity-(P-)violation. This invites for po…
Atomic Parity Violation provides the rare opportunity of a low energy window into possible new fundamental processes at very high mass scales normally investigated at large high energy accelerators. Precise measurements on atomic systems are currently the most sensitive probes of many kinds of new physics, and complement high energy experiments. Present atomic experiments are beginning to reach their limits of precision due to either sensitivity, systematics or atomic structure uncertainties. An experiment in a single trapped Barium ion can improve on all of these difficulties. This experiment…
We present a detailed description of experimental studies of the parity violation effect in an isotopic chain of atomic ytterbium (Yb), whose results were reported in a recent Letter [Antypas et al., Nat. Phys. 15, 120 (2019)]. We discuss the principle of these measurements, made on the Yb 6s$^2$ $^1$S$_0 \rightarrow $5d6s $^3$D$_1$ optical transition at 408 nm, describe the experimental apparatus, and give a detailed account of our studies of systematic effects in the experiment. Our results offer the first direct observation of the isotopic variation in the atomic parity violation effect, a …
Precision measurements of parity non-conserving (PNC) interactions in atoms, molecules and ions can lead to the discovery of new physics beyond the standard model and understanding of weak-force induced interactions in the nucleus. In this paper, we propose and analyze a novel atomic parity violation measurement scheme for a forbidden transition where we combine a two-pathway coherent control mechanism with probe gain techniques. We detail a feasible experimental geometry for $6S_{1/2}\rightarrow 7S_{1/2}$ transitions in a cesium vapor cell, and consider the statistical noise of such a measure…
We have estimated the size of the light-shifts due to parity nonconservation (PNC) interactions in different isotopes of Ba+ and Ra+ ions based on the work of Fortson [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2383 (1993)]. We have used the nuclear spin independent (NSI) amplitudes calculated earlier by us [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 163003 (2006); Phys. Rev. A 78, 050501(R) (2008)] and we have employed the third order many-body perturbation theory (MBPT(3)) in this work to estimate the nuclear spin dependent (NSD) amplitudes in these ions. Ra+ is found to be more favourable than Ba+ for measuring both the NSI and NSD P…
Recent progress in calculations of QED radiative corrections to parity nonconservation in atoms is reviewed. The QED vacuum polarization, the self-energy corrections and the vertex corrections are shown to be described very reliably by different methods used by different groups. All new calculations have recently converged to very close final values. Each separate radiative correction is very large, above 1 % for heavy atoms, but having different signs they partly compensate each other. Our results for the radiative corrections for all atoms are presented. The corrections are -0.54 % for 133 C…
Electric polarizabilities of four low-J even-parity states and three low-J odd-parity states of atomic barium in the range $35,600 $ to $36,000\ $cm$^{-1}$ are investigated. The states of interest are excited (in an atomic beam) via an intermediate odd-parity state with a sequence of two laser pulses. The odd-parity states can be excited due to the Stark-induced mixing with even-parity states. The polarizabilities are measured via direct spectroscopy on the second-stage transition. Several states have tensor and scalar polarizabilities that exceed the values that might be expected from the kno…
The nuclear spin of a He$^3$ quasiparticle dissolved in superfluid He$^4$ sees an apparent magnetic field proportional to the Fermi coupling constant, the superfluid condensate density, and the electron current at the He$^3$ nucleus. Whereas the direction of the current must be parallel to the quasiparticle momentum, calculating its magnitude presents an interesting theoretical challenge because it vanishes in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. We find the effect is too small to be observed and present our results in the hope others will be inspired to look for similar effects in other system…
Single trapped ions are ideal systems in which to test atomic physics at high precision: they are effectively isolated atoms held at rest and largely free from perturbing interactions. This thesis describes several projects developed to study the structure of singly-ionized barium and more fundamental physics. First, we describe a spin-dependent "electron-shelving" scheme that allows us to perform single ion electron spin resonance experiments in both the ground 6S_{1/2} and metastable 5D_{3/2} states at precision levels of 10^{-5}. We employ this technique to measure the ratio of off-resonant…
We have performed relativistic many-body calculations of the hyperfine interaction in the $6s$ and $7s$ states of Cs, including the off-diagonal matrix element. The calculations were used to determine the accuracy of the semi-empirical formula for the electromagnetic transition amplitude $<6s|M1|7s>$ induced by the hyperfine interaction. We have found that even though the contribution of the many-body effects into the matrix elements is very large, the square root formula $<6s|H_{hfs}|7s > = \sqrt{< 6s|H_{hfs}|6s > < 7s|H_{hfs}|7s >}$ remains valid to the accuracy of a fraction of $10^{-3}$. T…
A semi-empirical calculation of the 6s - 7s Stark amplitude $α$ in Cs has been performed using the most accurate measurements and calculations of the electromagnetic amplitudes available. This is then used to extract the parameters of the electroweak theory from experimental data. The results are: $α= 269.0 (1.3) a_0^3$, weak charge of Cs $Q_W = -72.41(25)_{exp} (80)_{theor}$, deviation from the Standard model $S = -1.0(.3)_{exp} (1.0)_{theor}$ and limit on the mass of the extra Z-boson in SO(10) model $M_{Z_x} > 550 GeV$.
We discuss experiments aimed at measurements of atomic parity nonconservation (PNC) effects in the 1S0-3D1 transition (408 nm) in atomic Ytterbium (Z=70). According to theoretical predictions, the PNC-induced E1 amplitude of this transition is ~100 times larger than the analogous amplitude in Cs. Such an experiment will determine differences in PNC effects between different hyperfine components for odd-neutron-number Yb isotopes and, thereby, will allow measurements of the nuclear anapole moments in nuclei with unpaired neutrons. In addition, measurements of PNC in different isotopes would giv…
Fock-space perturbed relativistic coupled-cluster calculations of electric dipole polarizability and nuclear spin-dependent parity non-conservation in Cs
Corrections from Breit interaction to basic properties of atomic 133Cs are determined in the framework of third-order relativistic many-body perturbation theory. The corrections to energies, hyperfine-structure constants, off-diagonal hyperfine 6S-7S amplitude, and electric-dipole matrix elements are tabulated. It is demonstrated that the Breit corrections to correlations are comparable to the Breit corrections at the Dirac-Hartree-Fock level. Modification of the parity-nonconserving (PNC) 6S-7S amplitude due to Breit interaction is also evaluated; the resulting weak charge of $^{133}$Cs shows…
We report on measurements of atomic parity violation, made on a chain of ytterbium isotopes with mass numbers A=170, 172, 174, and 176. In the experiment, we optically excite the 6s2 1S0 -> 5d6s 3D1 transition in a region of crossed electric and magnetic fields, and observe the interference between the Stark- and weak-interaction-induced transition amplitudes, by making field reversals that change the handedness of the coordinate system. This allows us to determine the ratio of the weak-interaction-induced electric-dipole (E1) transition moment and the Stark-induced E1 moment. Our measurements…
We propose the effective simulation of light-matter ultrastrong-coupling phenomena with strong-coupling systems. Recent theory and experiments have shown that the quantum Rabi Hamiltonian can be simulated by a Jaynes--Cummings system with the addition of two classical drives. This allows to implement nonlinear processes that do not conserve the total number of excitations. However, parity is still a conserved quantity in the quantum Rabi Hamiltonian, which forbids a wide family of processes involving virtual transitions that break this conservation. Here, we show that these parity-non-conservi…
We present a detailed description of the observation of parity violation in the 1S0-3D1 408-nm forbidden transition of ytterbium, a brief report of which appeared earlier. Linearly polarized 408-nm light interacts with Yb atoms in crossed E- and B-fields. The probability of the 408-nm transition contains a parity violating term, proportional to (Elight . B)[(E x Elight) . B], arising from interference between the parity violating amplitude and the Stark amplitude due to the E-field (Elight is the electric field of the light). The transition probability is detected by measuring the population o…
We propose using a Stark interference technique to directly measure the odd-parity c_{0j} components of the electron sector c_{μν} tensor of the Standard-Model Extension. This technique has been shown to be a sensitive probe of parity violation in atomic dysprosium in a low-energy, tabletop experiment, and may also be straightforwardly applied to test Lorentz invariance. We estimate that such an experiment may be sensitive to c_{0j} coefficients as small as 10^{-18}.
Recent reanalyses of the atomic physics effects on the weak charge in cesium have led to a value in much closer agreement with predictions of the Standard Model. We review precision electroweak tests, their implications for upper bounds on the mass of the Higgs boson, possible ways in which these bounds may be circumvented, and the requirements placed upon accuracy of future atomic parity violation experiments by these considerations.
We discuss the propagation of hydrogen atoms in static electric and magnetic fields in a longitudinal atomic beam spin echo (lABSE) apparatus. There the atoms acquire geometric (Berry) phases that exhibit a new manifestation of parity-(P-)violation in atomic physics. We provide analytical as well as numerical calculations of the behaviour of the metastable 2S states of hydrogen. The conditions for electromagnetic field configurations that allow for adiabatic evolution of the relevant atomic states are investigated. Our results provide the theoretical basis for the discussion of possible measur…
We review the current status of the study of parity and time invariance violation in atoms, nuclei and molecules. We focus on parity non-conservation in cesium and three of the most promising areas of research: (i) parity non-conservation in a chain of isotopes, (ii) search for nuclear anapole moments, and (iii) search for permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) of atoms and molecules, which in turn are caused by either an electron EDM or nuclear $T,P$-odd moments such as a nuclear EDM or nuclear Schiff moment.
We introduce a novel and concise methodology to detect the parity of atomic and molecular orbitals based on photoelectron holography, which is more general than the existing schemes. It fully accounts for the Coulomb distortions of electron trajectories, does not require sculpted fields to retrieve phase information and, in principle, is applicable to a broad range of electron momenta. By comparatively measuring the differential photoelectron spectra from strong-field ionization of N$_{2}$ molecules and their companion atoms of Ar, some photoelectron holography patterns are found to be dephase…
Accurately calibrated effective field theories are used to compute atomic parity non-conserving (APNC) observables. Although accurately calibrated, these effective field theories predict a large spread in the neutron skin of heavy nuclei. While the neutron skin is strongly correlated to a large number of physical observables, in this contribution we focus on its impact on new physics through APNC observables. The addition of an isoscalar-isovector coupling constant to the effective Lagrangian generates a wide range of values for the neutron skin of heavy nuclei without compromising the success…
Recent advances in interpreting the most accurate to-date measurement of atomic parity violation in Cs are reviewed. The inferred nuclear weak charge, Q_W = - 72.65(28)_expt (36)_theor, agrees with the prediction of the standard model at 1 sigma level. Further improved interpretation is limited by an accuracy of solving basic correlation problem of atomic structure. We report on our progress in solving this problem within the relativistic coupled-cluster formalism. We include single-, double- and triple- electronic excitations in the coupled-cluster expansion. Numerical results for energies, e…
In a recent Letter [B. K. Sahoo, B. P. Das, and H. Spiesberger, Phys. Rev. D 103, L111303 (2021)], a calculation of the parity violating 6S-7S E1 amplitude in Cs is reported, claiming an uncertainty of just 0.3%. In this Comment, we point out that key contributions have been omitted, and the theoretical uncertainty has been significantly underestimated. In particular, the contribution of missed QED radiative corrections amounts to several times the claimed uncertainty.
We report on progress towards performing precision measurements of parity violation in Yb, in which the theoretical prediction for a strong weak-interaction-induced effect in the 6s^{2} ^{1}S_{0} \rightarrow 5d6s ^{3}D_{1} optical transition at 408 nm has already been confirmed, with a measurement of the effect at the \approx 10 % level of accuracy. With a new atomic-beam apparatus offering enhanced sensitivity, we are aiming at precisely determining the parity violation observable in Yb, which will allow us to probe the distributions of neutrons in different isotopes, investigate physics beyo…
Single trapped and laser cooled Radium ion as a possible candidate for measuring the parity violation induced frequency shift has been discussed here. Even though the technique to be used is similar to that proposed by Fortson [1], Radium has its own advantages and disadvantages. The most attractive part of Radium ion as compared to that of Barium ion is its mass which comes along with added complexity of instability as well as other issues which are discussed here
Employing the relativistic coupled-cluster method, comparative studies of the parity non-conserving electric dipole amplitudes for the $7s \ ^2S_{1/2} \rightarrow 6d \ ^2D_{5/2}$ transitions in $^{210}$Fr and $^{211}$Fr isotopes have been carried out. It is found that these transition amplitudes, sensitive only to the nuclear spin dependent effects, are enhanced by more than 3 orders compared to the low-lying $S-D_{5/2}$ transitions in Ba$^+$ and Ra$^+$ owing to the very large contributions from the electron core-polarization effects in Fr. This translates to a relatively large and, in princip…
We propose a nuclear mechanism which can induce an atomic electric dipole moment (EDM). Parity and time reversal violating (P,T-odd) nuclear forces generate a mixed P,T-odd nuclear polarizability beta_{ik} (defined by an energy shift U = -beta_{ik} E_{i}H_{k}, E is electric field and H magnetic field). The interaction of atomic electrons with beta_{ik} produces an atomic EDM. We performed an analytical calculation of the P,T-odd nuclear polarizability and estimated the value for the induced atomic EDM. The measurements of atomic EDMs can provide information about P,T-odd nuclear forces and tes…
We present the atomic parity violation measurements made in Cs vapour using a pump-probe scheme. After pulsed excitation of the 6S-7S forbidden transition in the presence of a longitudinal electric field, a laser beam resonant with one of the 7S-6P transitions stimulates the 7S atom emission for a duration of 20 ns. The polarisation of the amplified probe beam is analysed. A seven-fold signature allows discrimination of the parity violating linear dichroism, and real-time calibration by a similar, known, parity conserving linear dichroism. The zero-field linear dichroism signal due to the magn…
This is a personal recollection of the time when the search for APV was beginning. In spite of today's remarkable results, summarized here, there are still important goals to be achieved. I indicate a possible way to tackle the remaining experimental challenges, by adapting methods now of frequent use in precision metrology.
