Search for the Electron EDM using Cs and Rb in 1D Optical Lattice Traps

利用冷铯原子和冷铷原子进行电子电偶极矩（EDM）的研究。完成实验的原子处理和仪器构造部分，开始数据收集。具体来说，原子将被加载到空间磁屏蔽区域的一对平行一维远共振光学晶格陷阱中，激光冷却和光泵浦。它们的edm将通过观察它们在两个阱中方向相反的电场中的相干演化来测量。预计该实验将对小至3 × 10^-30 e-cm的电火花加工敏感，这比目前的限制提高了500倍。这个项目具有潜在的变革性，因为如果电偶极矩被发现，这将对我们对最基本的物理定律的理解产生深远的影响。这项工作还将利用一种基于在光学晶格中捕获原子的新技术，突破电子电火花加工测量的灵敏度极限。具有永久EDM的粒子意味着时间反转不变性和宇称不变性都被违反。事实上，粒子物理学的标准模型违反了这两种对称性，该模型预测基本粒子的edm非常小，但非零。对标准模型提出的扩展倾向于预测更大的电火花，接近目前的实验上限。如果继续没有观测到edm，将会排除标准模型的许多可能的扩展。相反，如果在未来几年内观测到电火花，这将是第一个不能纳入标准模型的实验结果。这个实验解决了基本粒子物理学中一个至关重要的问题。这些问题通常是用高能实验来解决的，但在这种情况下，原子物理学的精密工具可以应用于低得多的能量系统，同时成本也更低。除了这些更广泛的科学影响之外，这项工作还具有重要的教育组成部分，因为本科生和研究生将接受使用前沿研究技术的培训。

An experiment will be pursued to search for the electric dipole moment(EDM) of the electron using cold Cs and Rb atoms. The atom processing and apparatus construction part of experiment will be completed and data collection will commence. Specifically, atoms will be loaded into a pair of parallel 1D far-off-resonant optical lattice traps in a magnetically shielded region of space, laser-cooled and optically pumped. Their EDMs will be measured by observing their coherent evolution in electric fields that are directed oppositely in the two traps. It is projected that the experiment will be sensitive to an EDM as small as 3x10^-30 e-cm, which is a 500-fold improvement over the current limit. This project is potentially transformative, because if an electric dipole moment were discovered this would have a profound affect on our understanding of the laws of physics at the most fundamental level. The work will also push the limits of sensitivity of measurements of the electron EDM using a novel new technique based on trapping atoms in a optical lattice.A particle with a permanent EDM implies that both time-reversal invariance and parity invariance are violated. Both of these symmetries are in fact violated in the Standard Model of particle physics, which predicts very small, but non-zero EDMs for fundamental particles. Proposed extensions to the Standard Model tend to predict much larger EDMs, close to the current experimental upper limit. Continued non-observation of EDMs would rule out many posssible extensions to the Standard Model. Conversely, should an EDM be observed in the next several years, it would be the first experimental result of any kind that cannot be incorporated into the Standard Model. This experiment addresses a question of fundamental importance to elementary particle physics. Such questions are normally addressed with high energy experiments, but in this case, the precision tools of atomic physics can be applied to a much lower energy system, with a concomitant lower cost. In addition to these scientific broader impacts, this work has an important educational component as undergraduates and graduate students will be trained in the use of forefront research techniques.