New Manifestation of Atomic Parity Violation in Cesium: A Chiral Optical Gain Induced by Linearly Polarized6S−7SExcitation

Abstract

We have detected, by using stimulated emission, an atomic parity violation (APV) in the form of a chiral optical gain of a cesium vapor on the 7S-6P(3/2) transition, consecutive to linearly polarized 6S-7S excitation. We demonstrate the validity of this detection method of APV, by presenting a 9% accurate measurement of expected sign and magnitude. We stress several advantages of this new approach which fully exploits the cylindrical symmetry of the setup. Future measurements at the percent level will provide an important cross-check of an existing more precise result obtained by a different method.

Violations of fundamental symmetries in atoms and tests of unification theories of elementary particles

“…Measurements have been performed independently by the Paris group [39][40][41][42] and the Boulder group [43,44,8]. The results of the Cs PNC experiments are summarized in Table III. The Paris result in the first row is the average [41] of their (revised) results for the measurements of PNC in the transitions 6S F =4 − 7S F =4 [39] and 6S F =3 − 7S F =4 [40].…”

“…(The nuclear angular momentum of 133 Cs I = 7/2 and the electron angular momentum J = 1/2, so the total angular momentum of the atom is F = 3, 4). The Paris group have very recently performed a new measurement of PNC in Cs (last row) using a novel approach, chiral optical gain [42].…”

“…Ongoing/future studies of PNC in atoms with a single valence electron A PNC measurement in cesium is continuing at Paris [42], where ∼ 1% precision is expected to be reached. The possibility of performing PNC measurements on the single trapped ions Ba + and Ra + is being considered at Seattle [135,136].…”

Theoretical overview of atomic parity violation

“…Since the overall error is obtained with quadrature (2), reducing σ theor below the experimental uncertainty of 0.35% will either reveal new physics or set important constraints on competing extensions to the SM. In addition, it will set a stage for further experimental efforts, such as those by Paris group [32,33]. Other experimental efforts which will benefit from the improved calculations are PNC measurements with Ba + [34,35], Tl [36], and Fr [37].…”

Demonstration of an optical polarization magnifier with low birefringence

“…Measurements of the magnification factor k were made by using the two main methods of polarimetry, i.e., extinction between crossed polarizers and balanced mode, the latter being the polarimetric method used in our Parity Violation experiment 15 . In the first case, the device was inserted between crossed Glan polarizer and analyzer in the path of a laser beam at 633 nm.…”