Opportunities for Fundamental Physics Research with Radioactive Molecules

Abstract

Molecules containing short-lived, radioactive nuclei are uniquely positioned to enable a wide range of scientific discoveries in the areas of fundamental symmetries, astrophysics, nuclear structure, and chemistry. Recent advances in the ability to create, cool, and control complex molecules down to the quantum level, along with recent and upcoming advances in radioactive species production at several facilities around the world, create a compelling opportunity to coordinate and combine these efforts to bring precision measurement and control to molecules containing extreme nuclei. In this manuscript, we review the scientific case for studying radioactive molecules, discuss recent atomic, molecular, nuclear, astrophysical, and chemical advances which provide the foundation for their study, describe the facilities where these species are and will be produced, and provide an outlook for the future of this nascent field.

Level structure of Ac221 and Fr217 from decay spectroscopy, and reflection asymmetry in Rey-Herme1, Raggio2, Vandebrouck3 et al. 2023Phys. Rev. C0000View full textAdd to dashboardCite

“…A measurement of this property would help to constrain sources of chargeparity (CP) violation, proposed as necessary ingredients in our understanding of the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. We note that further sensitivity may be gained through the study of radioactive molecules incorporating heavy, octupole-deformed nuclei, highlighting a renewed interest in the underlying structure of such nuclei [19].…”

Quantum-Number Projected Generator Coordinate Method for 21Ne with a Chiral Two-Nucleon-Plus-Three-Nucleon Interaction

“…Studying nuclear low-lying states, including energy spectra and electroweak transition strengths, is crucial for advancing our understanding of nuclear physics [1,2]. It also plays a key role in exploring new physics at the high-precision frontier, such as nonzero electric dipole moments [3,4], single-β decay [5], and neutrinoless double-β decay [6]. Modeling the low-lying states of light to heavy atomic nuclei directly from the fundamental interactions between nucleons is of great interest for this purpose.…”

Relativistic Exact Two-Component Coupled-Cluster Study of Molecular Sensitivity Factors for Nuclear Schiff Moments

“…3−5 Molecules, in particular, have extreme internal electromagnetic environments which amplify the effects of symmetry-violating electromagnetic moments such as electric dipole moments (EDMs), nuclear magnetic quadrupole moments (MQMs), and nuclear Schiff moments (NSMs) − all of which violate both T− and P−symmetries, and are sensitive to symmetryviolating physics beyond the Standard Model. 6 Sensitivity to nuclear symmetry violations via NSMs can be enhanced by around a thousand-fold in heavy nuclei possessing an octupole (β 3 ) deformation and nonzero nuclear spin, 7 including statically deformed isotopes of radioactive species Fr, Ra, Ac, Th, and Pa, as well as dynamically deformed isotopes of stable species Eu and Dy, all of which present both experimental and theoretical challenges.…”