Search for a 129-Xe Electric Dipole Moment
Abstract
Spin exchange pumped 3-He and 129-Xe masers are used to search for a CP-violating electric dipole moment (EDM) of 129-Xe. The two-species 3-He/129-Xe maser is constructed with a double bulb glass cell. In the pump bulb, the nuclear spins of both species are polarized by collisional hyperfine exchange with laser optically pumped Rb atoms. In the maser bulb, the spins of each species are coupled to coils tuned to both the 3-He and 129-Xe nuclear Zeeman frequencies at about 0.3 mT. Continuous maser oscillations are sustained while an electric field is applied to the maser cell. An observed relative frequency shift between the 129-Xe and 3-He masers, induced by the electric field, would be effectively proportional to the EDM of 129-Xe because the effects of CP violation scale as Z^2-Z^3. The use of 3-He allows rejection of common mode systematic effects incuding those arising from leakage currents, clock instability, and variations in the applied magnetic field. Two separate 3-He/129-Xe masers have been constructed at U. Michigan and the Harvard-Smithsonian, and EDM searches are underway with electric fields up to 5 kV/cm. Current sensitivity is 3E-27 e-cm, which is by far the most sensitive two species EDM measurement to date. Essential studies of false EDM and other systematic effects are underway. The expected sensitivity from the combined Michigan and Harvard-Smithsonian results is much less than 1E-27 e-cm.
- Publication:
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APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- June 2000
- Bibcode:
- 2000APS..DMP..H401R