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Poster Session

Poster Session III

4:00 pm – 6:00 pm, Thursday June 19 Session S00 Oregon Convention Center:, Exhibit Hall E
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Progress towards an electron electric dipole moment measurement using BaF molecules in an inert-gas matrix

Poster 131
Presenter: Eric A Hessels (York University)
Authors: Ricardo Lambo (York University), Zachary Corriveau (York University), Jorge Perez-Garcia (York University), Neil McCall (York University), Hin-Man Yau (York University), Tirthrajsinh Chauhan (York University), Gregory Koyanagi (York University), Alain Marsman (York Univ), René Fournier (York University), Cody Storry (York University), Matthew George (York University), Marko Horbatsch (York University)
Collaboration: EDM<sup>3</sup> collaboration

The goal of the EDM3 collaboration is to make an ultraprecise measurement of the electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) using BaF molecules embedded in a cryogenic inert-gas solid. The very large number of molecules, along with the fact that the molecules have their positions and orientations fixed by the matrix, allows for the possibility of large improvements in accuracy for an eEDM measurement. Many of the steps necessary for an EDM3 measurement have been demonstrated, including producing solids with a sufficiently large number of embedded BaF molecules, optical pumping, laser-induced fluorescence detection, and radio-frequency hyperfine transitions. Due to a quantum-mechanical interference effect, the efficiency of optical pumping depends on both the handedness of the circular polarization and the orientation of the molecule, and this effect can be used to preferentially select molecules of a particular orientation, as is required for an eEDM measurement. A tetra-substitution site in an argon crystal, in which a BaF molecule substitutes for four Ar atoms, appears to ideal for making an eEDM measurement. 

Funding acknowledgement

We acknowledge support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation (through the Center for Fundamental Physics at Northwestern University), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Research Fund and from York University.

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