Short-Lived Radioactive Molecules
Precision measurements of molecular systems provide highly sensitive laboratories for exploring the possible violation of fundamental symmetries and search for new physics beyond the standard model physics [Barr14,Demi17,Safr18]. Radioactive molecules compound of heavy and deformed short-lived isotopes are predicted to offer unprecedented sensitivity to investigate parity and time reversal violation effects. However, the experimental knowledge of short-lived radioactive molecules is scarce, and quantum chemistry calculations has constituted the only source of spectroscopy information.
[Barr14] Barry, J. et al. Nature 512, 286 (2014).
[Demi17] DeMille et al. Science 357, 990 (2017).
[Safr18] Safronova et al. Rev Mod Phys 90, 025008 (2018).
Single Molecular Ions in a Penning Trap
Our group and collaborators are developing a novel technique to enable precision studies of yet-to-be-explored nuclear electroweak properties [1]. By trapping single molecular ions in a superconducting magnet (Penning trap), the extreme high magnetic field of the trap can be used to create a superposition of molecular states of different parity thereby amplifying the molecular sensitivity to electroweak nuclear properties by more than 11 orders magnitude [2], relative to prior work with atoms. This extreme boost of sensitivity will enable unique access to hadronic parity-violating nuclear properties that until now have not been measured, even for most of the stable nuclei.
These developments will enable future studies of the electroweak structure of short-lived isotopes with extreme proton-to-neutron ratios. These properties are not only critical to our fundamental understanding of the nuclear force and the structure of nuclei, but will also provide precise low-energy tests of the Standard Model and the violation of fundamental symmetries, both within and beyond this framework.
Do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested in this project.
[1] Karthein, Udrescu, Moroch et al. In preparation (2022).
[2] Altunas et al . Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 142501 (2018).