Order of Magnitude Smaller Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron

2013/10/31 by ACME Collaboration, Jacob Baron, Wesley C. Campbell +15 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.atom-ph #hep-ex

paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1248213

published as Science Vol. 343 no. 6168 pp. 269-272 (2014)

arxiv created 2013/11/07 · arxiv updated 2014/01/29

Abstract

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics fails to explain dark matter and why matter survived annihilation with antimatter following the Big Bang. Extensions to the SM, such as weak-scale Supersymmetry, may explain one or both of these phenomena by positing the existence of new particles and interactions that are asymmetric under time-reversal (T). These theories nearly always predict a small, yet potentially measurable (10^-27-10^-30 e cm) electron electric dipole moment (EDM, d_e), which is an asymmetric charge distribution along the spin (S). The EDM is also asymmetric under T. Using the polar molecule thorium monoxide (ThO), we measure d_e = (-2.1 ± 3.7_stat ± 2.5_syst)× 10^-29 e cm. This corresponds to an upper limit of |d_e| < 8.7× 10^-29 e cm with 90 percent confidence, an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity compared to the previous best limits. Our result constrains T-violating physics at the TeV energy scale.

Cited by

• Electron Electric Dipole Moment and Hyperfine Interaction Constants for ThO
• Rotational spectra and de-perturbation analysis for ground state ytterbium oxide, YbO

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