20–25 Oct 2019
PSI
Europe/Zurich timezone

Measurement of the Permanent Electric Dipole Moment of the $^{129}$Xe Atom

21 Oct 2019, 11:35
20m
WHGA/001 - Auditorium (PSI)

WHGA/001 - Auditorium

PSI

Oral Session

Speaker

Fabian Allmendinger (Physikalisches Institut, Uni Heidelberg)

Description

We present our recently published [1] measurement of the CP-violating permanent Electric Dipole Moment (EDM) of the neutral $^{129}$Xe atom. Our experimental approach is based on the detection of the free precession of co-located nuclear spin-polarized $^3$He and $^{129}$Xe samples. The EDM measurement sensitivity benefits strongly from long spin coherence times of several hours achieved in diluted gases and homogeneous weak magnetic fields of about 400 nT. A finite EDM is indicated by a change in the precession frequency, as an electric field is periodically reversed with respect to the magnetic guiding field. Our result, $\left(-4.7\pm6.4\right)\cdot 10^{-28}$ ecm, is consistent with zero and is used to place a new upper limit on the $^{129}$Xe EDM: $|d_\text{Xe}|<1.5 \cdot 10^{-27}$ ecm (95% C.L.).

[1] Measurement of the permanent electric dipole moment of the $^{129}$Xe atom, F. Allmendinger, I. Engin, W. Heil, S. Karpuk, H.-J. Krause, B. Niederländer, A. Offenhäusser, M. Repetto, U. Schmidt, and S. Zimmer, Phys. Rev. A 100 (2019). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.100.022505

Primary authors

Fabian Allmendinger (Physikalisches Institut, Uni Heidelberg) Ilhan Engin (FZ Jülich) Werner Heil (Institute of Physics) Sergej Karpuk (Uni Mainz) Hans-Joachim Krause (FZ Jülich) Benjamin Niederländer (Uni Mainz) Andreas Offenhäusser (FZ Jülich) Ulrich Schmidt (Physikalisches Institut der Uni Heidelberg) Stefan Zimmer

Presentation materials