Magnetometry for measuring the electric dipole moment of the electron

这个项目调查了宇宙的一个基本谜团，即为什么宇宙学观测显示宇宙由规则物质主导，而我们目前对物理定律的理解表明，在大爆炸中，物质和反物质的数量应该几乎相等。这个谜团，以及其他类似的谜团，表明一定有新的物理--新的力和粒子--等待着被发现。我们通过尽可能精确地测量电子的圆度，即所谓的电子电偶极矩，来寻找这一新物理学的证据。在我们的测量水平上，已知的物理定律预测电子将是完美的圆形。一大批新理论被提出，但从未得到实验验证，它们预测了一个圆度小得多的电子，诱人地在我们的实验掌握之中。这些同样的新理论也有助于解答像观察到的物质/反物质不平衡这样的谜团。因此，测量电子的电偶极矩不仅有可能揭示新物理学的证据，而且还有可能区分哪些新理论可能是正确的，从而引导理论物理学对宇宙有一个新的、更深入的理解。我们建立了一个新的实验来测量电子的圆度。这个实验对磁场特别敏感，如果不加以控制，可能会毁了实验的灵敏度。我们正在为磁力计申请资金，这将使我们能够在实验中描述和控制磁场，这是以所需精度测量电子最具挑战性和最关键的方面之一。这些磁力计还将为我们提供设计下一代实验所需的关键数据，这些实验的精度可能会提高10-100倍。

This project investigates one of the fundamental mysteries of the universe, namely why cosmological observations show a universe dominated by regular matter, when our current understand of the laws of physics indicates both matter and anti-matter should have been made in nearly equal amounts in the Big Bang. This mystery, and others like it, indicate that there must be new physics -- new forces and particles -- waiting to be discovered. We search for evidence of this new physics by measuring the roundness of the electron, the so-called electron electric dipole moment, as precisely as possible. At the level of our measurements, the known laws of physics predict that the electron will be perfectly round. A large swath of new theories, which have been proposed but never yet verified experimentally, predict a much less round electron, tantalizingly within the grasp of our experiments. These same new theories also help answer mysteries like the observed matter/anti-matter imbalance. Thus, measuring the electric dipole moment of the electron has the potential to not only reveal evidence for new physics, but also to distinguish between which new theories might be correct, guiding theoretical physics to a new and deeper understanding of the universe. We have built a new experiment to measure the electron roundness. This experiment is exceptionally sensitive to magnetic fields which, if not controlled, can ruin the experimental sensitivity. We are requesting funds for magnetometers that will allow us to characterize and control magnetic fields in the experiment, which is one of the most challenging and crucial aspects of measuring the electron at the required precision. These magnetometers will also provide us with critical data needed for designing the next generation experiment that could potentially be 10-100 times more precise.