Experiments Using Long Coherence Times in Atoms

自然规律只能通过实验来揭示。在我们对这些定律的理解中，一个明显的缺陷是时间反演对称性破坏所扮演的角色，时间和物理力之间的联系。由于电偶极矩（EDM）只有在时间反演对称性被破坏时才能存在，因此汞EDM项目将在汞原子内寻找时间反演对称性破坏。EDM的大小将揭示自然规律的正确描述。EDM的特征是当电场施加到原子上时，核自旋进动频率（MRI机器中使用的信号）的偏移。该实验将测量电场对进动频率的影响，达到前所未有的精度，也许是第一个检测到非消失EDM的实验。时间反演对称性及其破坏的概念吸引了公众和广泛的物理学界。在物理学中，EDM实验对原子，核，高能和天体物理学社区都很感兴趣，实验学家和理论家都一样。汞EDM项目是一个“桌面”实验，让研究生，本科生和高中生有机会在当地工作的小规模实验中，他们可以探索通常只有大型团体在高能加速器上研究的基本问题。这些学生在原子，激光和电子技术方面获得经验，反过来又有助于在这项技术上取得进步，并将其带到未来的职业生涯中。 为测量核自旋进动频率而开发的技术达到了前所未有的精度，这些技术被转移到其他领域的研究人员手中，在这些领域，精确的磁力测量是至关重要的。

The laws of nature can only be revealed through experimentation. A glaring deficiency in our understanding of those laws is the role played by time reversal symmetry violation, the connection between time and the physical forces. Because an electric dipole moment (EDM) can exist only if time-reversal symmetry is violated, the mercury EDM project will search for time reversal symmetry violation within the mercury atom. The size of the EDM will shed light on the correct description of the laws of nature. The signature of an EDM is a shift of the nuclear spin precession frequency (the signal used in MRI machines) when an electric field is applied to the atoms. The experiment will measure the effect of an electric field on the precession frequency to unprecedented accuracy and perhaps be the first experiment to detect a non-vanishing EDM.The notion of time reversal symmetry and its violation appeals to the general public as well as a broad physics community. Within physics, EDM experiments are of interest to the atomic, nuclear, high energy, and astrophysics communities, both experimentalists and theorists alike. The mercury EDM project is a "table-top" experiment, giving graduate, undergraduate, and high school students the opportunity to work locally on a small-scale experiment in which they can explore fundamental issues normally studied only by large groups at high energy accelerators. These students gain experience in exquisite technology with atoms, lasers and electronics, and in turn help make advances in this technology that they take with them to their future careers. The techniques developed to measure nuclear spin precession frequencies to unprecedented accuracy are transferred to researchers in other fields where precision magnetometry is paramount.