Nuclear-spin dependent parity violation in optically trapped polyatomic molecules

Abstract

We investigate using optically trapped linear polyatomic molecules as probes of nuclear spindependent parity violation. The presence of closely spaced, opposite-parity ℓ-doublets is a general feature of such molecules, allowing parity-violation-sensitive pairs of levels to be brought to degeneracy in magnetic fields typically 100 times smaller than in diatomics. Assuming laser cooling and trapping of polyatomics at the current state-of-the-art for diatomics, we expect to measure nuclear spin-dependent parity-violating matrix elements iW with 70 times better sensitivity than the current best measurements. Our scheme should allow for 10 % measurements of iW in nuclei as light as Be or as heavy as Yb, with averaging times on order the of 10 days and 1 second, respectively.

Polyatomic molecules as quantum sensors for fundamental physics

“…Parity-doubled states can have roughly quadratic or linear Zeeman shifts due to hyperfine coupling, leading to tunable energy spacings. When these states intersect, static PV effects are enhanced [145]. When the splitting is resonant with the oscillation frequency of an axion-like particle (see section 5.2) oscillating PV effects are enhanced [147].…”

“…Diatomic molecules in 2 Σ states (such as in BaF [146]) require large magnetic fields to push rotational states into degeneracy, which are spaced by several GHz, whereas the parity doublets in polyatomic molecules are smaller by orders of magnitude. Molecules of the form MOH, MNC, and MCN [145,148] for M=Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Yb, and Ra, for example, have parity doublets in their Figure 6.…”

Laser-cooled polyatomic molecules for improved electron electric dipole moment searches

“…Polyatomic molecules are also of interest to other tests of BSM physics, often due to vibrational motions which have no analogs in diatomic species. For example, degenerate bending modes can provide avoided crossings useful in probing nuclear spin-dependent parity violation [16], tunneling [17,18] and torsional [19][20][21] transitions provide enhanced sensitivity to drifts in fundamental constants, and vibronic coupling can yield similar enhancement factors [22]. eEDM-sensitive molecules with nonzero angular momentum projection along the internuclear axis arising from electronic orbits, i.e.…”

Handed Mirror Symmetry Breaking at the Photo-Excited State of π-Conjugated Rotamers in Solutions

“…For instance, linear amplification of faint E pv by the connotation of molecules to polymers and crystals [6], and a small influence of PV-originating oscillation on parity conserving electromagnetic (PC-EM)-originating quantum oscillation of imaginary chiral molecules in a double-well (DW) potential [11]. Additional theoretical models of real and imaginary molecules have been referred to in several innovative re-ports, along with experimental attempts [6][7][8][12][13][14][16][17][18]20,[25][26][27][28][29][41][42][43][44][45][46]. Recent reports highlight the advance in the realm of MPV [47][48][49][50].…”