Search

We investigate the merits of a measurement of the permanent electric dipole moment of the electron (eEDM) with barium monofluoride molecules, thereby searching for phenomena of CP violation beyond those incorporated in the standard model (SM) of particle physics. Although the BaF molecule has a smaller enhancement factor in terms of the effective electric field than other molecules used in current studies (YbF, ThO and ThF+), we show that a competitive measurement is possible by combining Stark-deceleration, laser-cooling and an intense primary cold source of BaF molecules. With the long coherent interaction times obtainable in a cold beam of BaF, a sensitivity of 5 × 10−30 e⋅cm for an eEDM is feasible. We describe the rationale, the challenges and the experimental methods envisioned to achieve this target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on precise measurements of magnetic field gradients extracted from transverse relaxation rates of precessing spin samples. The experimental approach is based on the free precession of gaseous, nuclear spin polarized He and Xe atoms in a spherical cell inside a magnetic guiding field of about 400 nT using LT SQUIDs as low-noise magnetic flux detectors. The transverse relaxation rates of both spin species are simultaneously monitored as magnetic field gradients are varied. For transverse relaxation times reaching 100 h, the residual longitudinal field gradient across the spin sample could be deduced to be | ∇ B | = (5.6 ± 0.2) pT/cm. The method takes advantage of the high signal-to-noise ratio with which the decaying spin precession signal can be monitored that finally leads to the exceptional accuracy to determine magnetic field gradients at the sub pT/cm scale. Graphical abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lifetime of the metastable 5d D state has been measured for a single trapped Ba ion in a Paul trap in Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) in the 10 mbar pressure range. A total of 5046 individual periods when the ion was shelved in this state have been recorded. A preliminary value $\tau _{D_{5/2}} = 26.4(1.7)$ s is obtained through extrapolation to zero residual gas pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]