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).
NEPTUNE Project
(NEPTUNE) Nuclear Electroweak Properties in Trap Using Near-degenerate Energy states. 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.
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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.
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Do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested in this project.
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[1] Karthein, Udrescu, Moroch et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 033003 (2024).
[2] Altunas et al . Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 142501 (2018).