Search for the Electron EDM using Cs and Rb in 1D Optical Lattice Traps

在一维光学晶格陷阱中使用 Cs 和 Rb 寻找电子 EDM

• 批准号: 0969303
• 负责人: David Weiss
• 金额: $ 41.7万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-01 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0969303&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Search; Electron; EDM; using; Cs

An experiment will be pursued to search for the electric dipole moment(EDM) of the electron using cold Cs and Rb atoms. The atom processing and apparatus construction part of experiment will be completed and data collection will commence. Specifically, atoms will be loaded into a pair of parallel 1D far-off-resonant optical lattice traps in a magnetically shielded region of space, laser-cooled and optically pumped. Their EDMs will be measured by observing their coherent evolution in electric fields that are directed oppositely in the two traps. It is projected that the experiment will be sensitive to an EDM as small as 3x10^-30 e-cm, which is a 500-fold improvement over the current limit. This project is potentially transformative, because if an electric dipole moment were discovered this would have a profound affect on our understanding of the laws of physics at the most fundamental level. The work will also push the limits of sensitivity of measurements of the electron EDM using a novel new technique based on trapping atoms in a optical lattice.A particle with a permanent EDM implies that both time-reversal invariance and parity invariance are violated. Both of these symmetries are in fact violated in the Standard Model of particle physics, which predicts very small, but non-zero EDMs for fundamental particles. Proposed extensions to the Standard Model tend to predict much larger EDMs, close to the current experimental upper limit. Continued non-observation of EDMs would rule out many posssible extensions to the Standard Model. Conversely, should an EDM be observed in the next several years, it would be the first experimental result of any kind that cannot be incorporated into the Standard Model. This experiment addresses a question of fundamental importance to elementary particle physics. Such questions are normally addressed with high energy experiments, but in this case, the precision tools of atomic physics can be applied to a much lower energy system, with a concomitant lower cost. In addition to these scientific broader impacts, this work has an important educational component as undergraduates and graduate students will be trained in the use of forefront research techniques.

我们将进行一项实验，利用冷 Cs 和 Rb 原子来寻找电子的电偶极矩 (EDM)。实验的原子处理和仪器搭建部分将完成，并开始数据收集。具体来说，原子将被加载到空间磁屏蔽区域中的一对平行一维远非共振光学晶格陷阱中，并进行激光冷却和光学泵浦。将通过观察两个陷阱中方向相反的电场的相干演化来测量它们的 EDM。预计该实验将对小至 3x10^-30 e-cm 的 EDM 敏感，这比当前限制提高了 500 倍。这个项目具有潜在的变革性，因为如果发现电偶极矩，这将对我们在最基本层面上理解物理定律产生深远的影响。这项工作还将使用一种基于光学晶格中捕获原子的新技术来突破电子 EDM 测量的灵敏度极限。具有永久 EDM 的粒子意味着时间反转不变性和宇称不变性都被违反。事实上，这两种对称性在粒子物理标准模型中都被违反了，该模型预测基本粒子的 EDM 非常小，但非零。对标准模型的拟议扩展倾向于预测更大的 EDM，接近当前的实验上限。继续不观察 EDM 将排除标准模型的许多可能的扩展。相反，如果在未来几年内观察到 EDM，这将是第一个无法纳入标准模型的实验结果。该实验解决了对基本粒子物理学至关重要的问题。这些问题通常通过高能实验来解决，但在这种情况下，原子物理学的精密工具可以应用于能量低得多的系统，从而降低成本。除了这些更广泛的科学影响之外，这项工作还具有重要的教育意义，因为本科生和研究生将接受前沿研究技术使用的培训。