2018/04/30 by D. Antypas, A. Fabricant, J. E. Stalnaker +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41567-018-0312-8
published as Nat. Phys. 15, 120 (2019) · 19 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables
arxiv created 2018/08/01 · arxiv updated 2019/07/04
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, which are at the 0.5% level of accuracy for three of the four isotopes measured, allow a definitive observation of the isotopic variation of the weak-interaction effects in an atom, which is found to be consistent with the prediction of the Standard Model. In addition, our measurements provide information about an additional Z' boson.