ACME: Advanced Cold Molecule Electron Electric Dipole Moment Search

ACME：高级冷分子电子电偶极矩搜索

• 批准号: 0855575
• 负责人: David DeMille
• 金额: $ 621.72万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-10-01 至 2014-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0855575&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ACME; Advanced; Cold; Molecule; Electron

The Advanced Cold Molecule Electric Dipole Moment Search (ACME) is a new collaborative effort to detect the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron. The most fundamental of physics theories, the Standard Model of particle physics, predicts an extremely small electron EDM, while essentially all proposed extensions to the Standard Model predict an electron EDM that is within the projected sensitivity for this experiment. The ThO molecule that ACME will use provides in one species all of the advantages identified by past molecular EDM studies, with the added benefit of a higher internal electric field which will further increase the sensitivity of the experiment. Moreover, the prototype ThO molecular beam source that ACME is developing, using laser ablation and cryogenic buffer gas cooling, already demonstrates the possibility of a usable flux of molecules that is a thousand times that of previous experiments. The initial ACME goal is to measure the electron EDM with a sensitivity that greatly exceeds the current limit. Many students and postdocs will learn their craft working on this experiment, and many of the techniques developed will have general application to precision measurements. There will be a broad impact on physics, whatever the ACME result. The lack of an electron EDM at the attainable precision would eliminate the most studied and motivated extensions to the Standard Model. The discovery of an electron EDM would be one of the great breakthroughs in physics, signifying the long anticipated breakdown of the Standard Model of particle physics, and heralding a new understanding of the imbalance between antimatter and matter in the universe

高级冷分子电偶极矩搜索（ACME）是一种新的协作努力，以检测电子的电偶极矩（EDM）。物理学理论的最基本，粒子物理的标准模型预测了非常小的电子EDM，而本质上所有提出的对标准模型的扩展预测了该实验预计灵敏度内的电子EDM。 ACME将使用的分子在一个物种中提供了过去分子EDM研究所确定的所有优点，并具有较高的内部电场的额外好处，这将进一步提高实验的灵敏度。此外，使用激光消融和低温缓冲气体冷却ACME正在开发的分子束源已经证明了分子可用通量的可能性，这是先前实验的一千倍。最初的ACME目标是以极大的灵敏度测量电子EDM。许多学生和博士后都会学习他们在这项实验上的工艺，而开发的许多技术都将在精确测量中进行一般应用。无论ACME结果如何，都会对物理产生广泛的影响。在可达到的精度上缺乏电子EDM将消除对标准模型的研究最多和动机的扩展。电子EDM的发现将是物理学的巨大突破之一，表示粒子物理标准模型的长期预期分解，并预示着对抗抗碎物与宇宙中物质之间不平衡的新理解