Description:

Abstract: A permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of a system is an asymmetry of charge along its angular momentum axis, and arises due to elementary particle forces that polarize the system. This correlation of angular momentum and the EDM signals the breaking of parity symmetry and time-reversal symmetry, and provides a way to reveal effects of short-range forces, including those not encompassed in the Standard Model of particles and forces.The same forces that would induce an EDM are also implied by the unexplained dominance of matter over antimatter in the Universe. For over sixty years physicists have sought to measure EDMs, first with neutrons and then with atoms, molecules and short-lived elementary particles. So far the experiments have only set limits, which strongly constrain Standard Model and beyond Standard Model parameters. In this talk I will provide an overview of EDMs to motivate a global analysis of constraints based on a number of experimental results and describe two experimental endeavors to significantly improve sensitivity to the EDMs of the neutron and 129Xe. Far too much background reading is available in Reviews of Modern Physics 91, 015001(2019).

Professor Timothy Chupp, University of Michigan

Host: CFP

Keywords: Physics, Center for Fundamental Physics