ACME: Advanced Cold Molecule Electron Electric Dipole Moment Search

先进的冷分子电偶极矩搜索(ACME)是一项新的合作工作，用于检测电子的电偶极矩(EDM)。最基本的物理理论，粒子物理的标准模型，预测了极小的电子电火花，而基本上所有对标准模型的扩展都预测了电子电火花在本实验的投影灵敏度范围内。ACME将使用的THO分子在一个物种中提供了过去分子电火花研究确定的所有优势，并增加了更高的内部电场，这将进一步提高实验的灵敏度。此外，ACME正在开发的分子束源原型，使用激光烧蚀和低温缓冲气体冷却，已经证明了可用的分子通量是以前实验的1000倍的可能性。ACME最初的目标是测量灵敏度大大超过当前限制的电子电火花加工。许多学生和博士后将在这项实验中学习他们的技能，所开发的许多技术将普遍应用于精确测量。无论ACME的结果如何，都将对物理学产生广泛的影响。如果没有达到所能达到的精度的电子电火花加工，将无法对标准模型进行最多研究和最积极的扩展。电子电火花的发现将是物理学上的重大突破之一，标志着人们期待已久的粒子物理标准模型的崩溃，并预示着对宇宙中反物质和物质之间不平衡的新理解

The Advanced Cold Molecule Electric Dipole Moment Search (ACME) is a new collaborative effort to detect the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron. The most fundamental of physics theories, the Standard Model of particle physics, predicts an extremely small electron EDM, while essentially all proposed extensions to the Standard Model predict an electron EDM that is within the projected sensitivity for this experiment. The ThO molecule that ACME will use provides in one species all of the advantages identified by past molecular EDM studies, with the added benefit of a higher internal electric field which will further increase the sensitivity of the experiment. Moreover, the prototype ThO molecular beam source that ACME is developing, using laser ablation and cryogenic buffer gas cooling, already demonstrates the possibility of a usable flux of molecules that is a thousand times that of previous experiments. The initial ACME goal is to measure the electron EDM with a sensitivity that greatly exceeds the current limit. Many students and postdocs will learn their craft working on this experiment, and many of the techniques developed will have general application to precision measurements. There will be a broad impact on physics, whatever the ACME result. The lack of an electron EDM at the attainable precision would eliminate the most studied and motivated extensions to the Standard Model. The discovery of an electron EDM would be one of the great breakthroughs in physics, signifying the long anticipated breakdown of the Standard Model of particle physics, and heralding a new understanding of the imbalance between antimatter and matter in the universe