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Nuclear-Spin Dependent Parity Violation in Optically Trapped Polyatomic Molecules

Published

Author(s)

Eric B. Norrgard, Daniel S. Barker, Stephen P. Eckel, James A. Fedchak, Nikolai N. Klimov, Julia K. Scherschligt

Abstract

We investigate using optically trapped linear polyatomic molecules as probes of nuclear spin- dependent parity violation. The presence of closely spaced, opposite-parity $\ell$-doublets is a general feature of such molecules, allowing parity-violation-sensitive pairs of levels to be brought to degeneracy in magnetic fields typically 100 times smaller than in diatomics. Assuming laser cooling and trapping of polyatomics at the current state-of-the-art for diatomics, we expect to measure nuclear spin-dependent parity-violating matrix elements $iW$ with 70 times better sensitivity than the current best measurements. Our scheme should allow for 10\,\% measurements of $iW$ in nuclei as light as Be or as heavy as Yb, with averaging times on order the of 10 days and 1 second, respectively.
Citation
Nature Communications Physics

Keywords

Fundamental Symmetries, Parity Violation, Molecules, Laser Cooling

Citation

Norrgard, E. , Barker, D. , Eckel, S. , Fedchak, J. , Klimov, N. and Scherschligt, J. (2019), Nuclear-Spin Dependent Parity Violation in Optically Trapped Polyatomic Molecules, Nature Communications Physics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=927150 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created July 2, 2019, Updated December 1, 2020