Order of Magnitude Smaller Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron

The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics cannot explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. Especially, new sources of CP-violation are necessary, and this is why physics beyond the ST is being explored. The search for permanent Electric Dipole Moments (EDMs) of elementary particles has the potential to provide a powerful tool to probe such new sources of CP-violation. Finding an EDM would be a convincing indication for physics beyond the SM. Storage rings make it possible to measure EDMs of charged particles by observing the effect of the EDM on the spin motion in the ring. The Cooler Synchrotron COSY at the Forschungszentrum Jülich provides polarized protons and deuterons with momenta up to 3.7 GeV/s and it constitutes an ideal testing ground and starting point for such an experimental program to search for EDMs of charged particles. This report provides an overview of the current status of the JEDI project for the first direct measurement of the deuteron EDM at COSY. The analysis is currently ongoing. Due to the complexity of storage rings, this study combines high precision measurements and thorough understanding of the systematic uncertainties involved.

Despite the many successes of the Standard Model of particle physics, there are still several physical observations that it cannot explain, such as the matter-antimatter asymmetry, non-zero neutrino masses, and the microscopic nature of dark matter. To address these limitations, extensions to the standard model are necessary, and searches for electric dipole moments (EDMs) of leptons are valuable test. The search for a muon EDM is the only search on a bare lepton of the second generation, complementing the searches for an EDM of the electron using polar molecules. A non-zero EDM of the muon would indicate Charge-Parity symmetry violation beyond the standard model. A dedicated experimental search for the muon EDM is being set up at PSI using the frozen-spin technique. In this technique, the anomalous spin precession of the muons in a storage ring is suppressed by applying an electric field in the radial direction. The muon EDM experiment will take place in two phases: the first phase will demonstrate the frozen-spin technique using a precursor experiment with 28 MeV/c muons, while the second phase will make use of 125 MeV/c muons, which could search for the muon EDM with a sensitivity of 6 × 10-23 e·cm. In this talk, we describe the precursor experiment at PSI and provide an update on the status of the experiment.

New fundamental particles at the mass scale of a few TeV c–2 could account for observed phenomena that cannot be explained by the standard model (SM) of particle physics, including the microscopic origin of dark matter and the macroscopic imbalance of matter over antimatter in the Universe. However, no beyond-the-SM (BSM) particles at the TeV scale have yet been detected at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). With recent innovations, searches for time-reversal symmetry (T) violation through low-energy precision measurements of electric dipole moments (EDMs) of atoms and molecules have attained the sensitivity to detect indirect signatures of certain particles with masses of more than 10 TeV c–2. In this Perspective, we discuss recent developments in the measurement and interpretation of EDMs, and assess proposed techniques for future experiments that could push experimental limits on T-violating BSM physics to the PeV scale. Electric dipole moments (EDMs) of atoms and molecules are a sensitive probe for sources of time-reversal symmetry violation beyond the standard model. In this Perspective, we review recent progress in EDM searches with atoms and molecules and survey proposed next-generation experiments.

The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics is not capable to account for the apparent matterantimatter asymmetry of our Universe. Physics beyond the SM is required and is searched for by (i) employing highest energies (e.g., at LHC), and (ii) striving for ultimate precision and sensitivity (e.g., in the search for electric dipole moments (EDMs)). Permanent EDMs of particles violate both time reversal (T) and parity (P) invariance, and are via the CPT-theorem also CP-violating. Finding an EDM would be a strong indication for physics beyond the SM, and pushing upper limits further provides crucial tests for any corresponding theoretical model, e.g., SUSY. Direct searches of proton and deuteron EDMs bear the potential to reach sensitivities beyond 10−29 e cm. For an all-electric proton storage ring, this goal is pursued by the US-based srEDM collaboration [2], while the newly found Julich-based JEDI collaboration [1] is pursuing an approach using a combined electric-magnetic lattice which shall provide access to the EDMs of protons, deuterons, and 3He ions in the same machine. In addition, JEDI has recently proposed to perform a direct measurement of the proton and/or deuteron EDM at COSY using resonant techniques involving Wien filters.

The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics is not capable of accounting for the apparent matter-antimatter asymmetry of our universe. Physics beyond the SM is required and is searched for by (i) employing highest energies (e.g., at LHC), and (ii) striving for ultimate precision and sensitivity (e.g., in the search for electric dipole moments (EDMs)). Permanent EDMs of particles violate both time reversal (T) and parity (P) invariance, and are via the CPT-theorem also CP-violating. Finding an EDM would be a strong indication for physics beyond the SM, and reducing upper limits further provides crucial tests for any corresponding theoretical model, e.g., SUSY. Direct searches for proton and deuteron EDMs bear the potential to reach sensitivities beyond 10−29 e·cm. For an all-electric proton storage ring, this goal is pursued by the US-based srEDM collaboration [1], while the newly founded Jülich-based JEDI collaboration [2] is pursuing an approach using a combined electric-magnetic lattice, which shall provide access to the EDMs of protons, deuterons, and 3He ions in the same machine. In addition, JEDI has recently proposed making a direct measurement of the proton and/or deuteron EDM at COSY using resonant techniques involving Wien filters.

The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics is not capable to account for the apparent matter-antimatter asymmetry of our Universe. Physics beyond the SM is required and is either probed by employing highest energies (e.g., at LHC), or by striving for ultimate precision and sensitivity (e.g., in the search for electric dipole moments). Permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) of particles violate both time reversal $(T)$ and parity $(P)$ invariance, and are via the $CPT$-theorem also $CP$-violating. Finding an EDM would be a strong indication for physics beyond the SM, and pushing upper limits further provides crucial tests for any corresponding theo\-retical model, e.g., SUSY. Up to now, EDM searches focused on neutral systems (neutrons, atoms, and molecules). Storage rings, however, offer the possibility to measure EDMs of charged particles by observing the influence of the EDM on the spin motion in the ring. Direct searches of proton and deuteron EDMs, however, bear the potential to reach sensitivities beyond $10^{-29}$ e$\cdot$cm. Since the Cooler Synchrotron COSY at the Forschungszentrum J\ulich provides polarized protons and deuterons up to momenta of 3.7 GeV/c, it constitutes an ideal testing ground and starting point for such an experimental program. Besides the discussion of the achievements of the JEDI collboration, and the description of an effort to perform a first direct deuteron EDM measurement at COSY, the report highlights in addition future technical developments that will pave the way toward EDM searches in dedicated rings. A recent advancement that grew out of the successful work performed by JEDI is the formation of the CPEDM Collaboration\protect\footnote{Charged Particle Electric Dipole Moment Collaboration \protect\url{http://pbc.web.cern.ch/edm/edm-default.htm}}, which aims at the design of an EDM prototype ring that could be hosted either at CERN or at COSY, will be discussed as well.

The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics cannot explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. Especially, new sources of CP-violation are necessary, and this is why physics beyond the SM is being explored. The search for permanent Electric Dipole Moments (EDMs) of elementary particles has the potential to provide a powerful tool to discover new sources of CP-violation. Finding an EDM would be a convincing indication for physics beyond the SM. Moreover, a rotating polarized beam used in EDM searches is sensitive to oscillating EDM caused by axions or axion-like particles (ALPs), the candidates for the dark matter. Storage rings are promising devices to measure EDMs of charged particles by observing the effect of the EDM on the spin motion in the ring. The Cooler Synchrotron COSY at the Forschungszentrum Jülich provides polarized protons and deuterons with momenta up to 3.7 GeV/c and it constitutes an suitable testing ground and starting point for an experimental program to search for EDMs of charged particles. This report provides an overview of the current status of the JEDI project for the first direct measurement of the deuteron EDM at COSY. The analysis is currently ongoing. Due to the complexity of storage rings, this study combines high precision measurements and thorough understanding of the systematic uncertainties involved.

The electron is predicted to be slightly aspheric, with a distortion characterized by the electric dipole moment (EDM), d(e). No experiment has ever detected this deviation. The standard model of particle physics predicts that d(e) is far too small to detect, being some eleven orders of magnitude smaller than the current experimental sensitivity. However, many extensions to the standard model naturally predict much larger values of d(e) that should be detectable. This makes the search for the electron EDM a powerful way to search for new physics and constrain the possible extensions. In particular, the popular idea that new supersymmetric particles may exist at masses of a few hundred GeV/c(2) (where c is the speed of light) is difficult to reconcile with the absence of an electron EDM at the present limit of sensitivity. The size of the EDM is also intimately related to the question of why the Universe has so little antimatter. If the reason is that some undiscovered particle interaction breaks the symmetry between matter and antimatter, this should result in a measurable EDM in most models of particle physics. Here we use cold polar molecules to measure the electron EDM at the highest level of precision reported so far, providing a constraint on any possible new interactions. We obtain d(e) = (-2.4 ± 5.7(stat) ± 1.5(syst)) × 10(-28)e cm, where e is the charge on the electron, which sets a new upper limit of |d(e)| < 10.5 × 10(-28)e cm with 90 per cent confidence. This result, consistent with zero, indicates that the electron is spherical at this improved level of precision. Our measurement of atto-electronvolt energy shifts in a molecule probes new physics at the tera-electronvolt energy scale.

Searches for permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) of fundamental particles, atoms and molecules are promising experiments to constrain and potentially reveal beyond Standard Model (SM) physics. A non-zero EDM is a direct manifestation of time-reversal (T) violation, and, equivalently, violation of the combined operation of charge-conjugation (C) and parity inversion (P). Identifying new sources of CP violation can help to solve fundamental puzzles of the SM, e.g., the observed baryon-asymmetry in the Universe. Theoretical predictions for magnitudes of EDMs in the SM are many orders of magnitude below current experimental limits. However, many theories beyond the SM require larger EDMs. Experimental results, especially when combined in a global analysis, impose strong constraints on CP violating model parameters. Including an overview of EDM searches, I will focus on the future neutron EDM experiment at TRIUMF (Vancouver). For this effort, the TUCAN (TRIUMF Ultra Cold Advanced Neutron source) collaboration is aiming to build a strong, world leading source of ultra cold neutrons (UCN) based on a unique combination of a spallation target and a superfluid helium UCN converter. Another focus will be the search for an EDM of the diamagnetic atom 129 Xe using a 3 He comagnetometer and SQUID detection. The HeXeEDM collaboration has taken EDM data in 2017 and 2018 in the magnetically shielded room (BMSR-2) at PTB Berlin.

The presence of a permanent electric dipole moment in an elementary particle implies Charge-Parity symmetry violation and thus could help explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry observed in our universe. Within the context of the Standard Model, the electric dipole moment of elementary particles is extremely small. However, many Standard Model extensions such as supersymmetry predict large electric dipole moments. Recently, the muon electric dipole moment has become a topic of particular interest due to the tensions in the magnetic anomaly of the muon and the electron, and hints of lepton-flavor universality violation in B-meson decays. In this article, we discuss a dedicated effort at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland to search for the muon electric dipole moment using a 3-T compact solenoid storage ring and the frozen-spin technique. This technique could reach a sensitivity of $6\times10^{-23}$ $e\cdot$cm after a year of data taking with the $p=125$ MeV/$c$ muon beam at the Paul Scherrer Institute. This allows us to probe various Standard Model extensions not reachable by traditional searches using muon $g-2$ storage rings.

We address in this thesis two primary questions aimed at improving our ability to calculate reliably in the Standard Model of particle physics and probing possible new particles which may exist beyond it. First, we embark on an attempt to account for the abundance of matter in the present Universe if earlier in its history matter and antimatter were equally abundant. We explore whether baryogenesis at the electroweak phase transition could successfully account for the observed density of baryons in the Universe, using the closed-time-path (CTP) formalism of quantum field theory to calculate the buildup and relaxation of particle densities during the phase transition. For our model of the new particles and sources of CP violation necessary to account for the baryon asymmetry of the Universe, we adopt the Minimal Supersymmetric Extension of the Standard Model (MSSM). We look for regions of the parameter space in the MSSM that could give rise to sufficiently large baryon asymmetry without violating constraints on these parameters from existing experiments, in particular, constraints on masses of Higgs and supersymmetric particles from accelerator searches and precision electroweak tests, and on CP-violating parameters of the MSSM from searches for electric dipole moments of elementary particles. Next, we explore how to get around our ignorance of the dynamics of strongly interacting particles in the nonperturbative regime of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) by the clever use of effective field theories. Two applications are explored: the decay of Z bosons to hadronic jets using soft-collinear effective theory (SCET) and the radiative decays of quarkonia to light hadrons using SCET and non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD). These tools facilitate the proof of factorization of decay rates into perturbatively-calculable and nonperturbative parts. Universality of the latter among different observables provides predictive power even in our ignorance of the details of the nonperturbative physics.

While the first particle accelerators were electrostatic machines, and several electrostatic storage rings were subsequently commissioned and operated, electrostatic storage rings pose a number of challenges. Unlike motion in the magnetic field, where particle energy remains constant, particle energy generally changes in electrostatic elements. Conservation of energy in an electrostatic element is, in practice, only approximate, and it requires careful and accurate design, manufacturing, installation, and operational use. Electrostatic deflectors require relatively high electrostatic fields, tend to introduce nonlinear aberrations of all orders, and are more challenging to manufacture than homogeneous magnetic dipoles. Accordingly, magnetic storage rings are overwhelmingly prevalent. The search for electric dipole moments (EDMs) of fundamental particles is of key importance in the study of C and CP violations and their sources. C and CP violations are part of the Sakharov conditions that explain the matter–antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Determining the source of CP violations would provide valuable empirical insight for beyond-Standard-Model physics. EDMs of fundamental particles have not to this date been experimentally observed. The search for fundamental particle EDMs has narrowed the target search region; however, an EDM signal is yet to be discovered. In 2008, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) had proposed the frozen spin (FS) concept for the search of a deuteron EDM. The FS concept envisions launching deuterons through a storage ring with combined electrostatic and magnetic fields. The electrostatic and magnetic fields are in a proportion that would, without an EDM, freeze the deuteron’s spin along its momentum as the deuteron moves around the lattice. The radial electrostatic field would result in a torque on the spin vector, proportional to a deuteron EDM, rotating the spin vector out of the midplane.

Search for an electric dipole moment is one of the best motivated low-energy approaches for investigating physics beyond the Standard Model. Our experimental effort is focused on improving the limit on EDM in liquid 129Xe to put constraints on nuclear CP-violating interactions. High nuclear spin density and high electrical breakdown strength make 129Xe a promising medium for EDM searches. At the time the project started, the transverse nuclear spin relaxation time T2 of 129Xe was unknown. We made measurements of T2 using NMR spin-echo techniques and found that it is exceeds 1300 sec, the longest relaxation time ever measured in a liquid [1]. We also began to investigate non-linear dipolar interaction effects in a high-density spin-polarized liquid Xe. In the second iteration of the experiment we setup a high-Tc SQUID system in magnetic shields and performed detailed studies of Xe spin precession. We developed a model for non-linear dipolar interactions and found that for one set of conditions non-linear interactions can delay spin dephasing due to magnetic field gradients, while for another set of conditions they can lead to exponential amplification of the spin precession signals [2]. Our experimental data were in good quantitative agreement with predictions of the model. We also developed a series of numerical simulations to understand various imperfections in the system and made detailed experimental measurements to confirm these numerical predictions [3]. We demonstrated that non-linear interactions can amplify small precession signals and achieved an amplification factor of 10 [4]. This general phenomenon can be used in other precision measurements with non-linear interactions. We also explored practical applications of the liquid Xe system that we developed. We demonstrated that by mixing Xe with organic liquids, such as cyclopentane, one can enhance the proton spin polarization by a factor of 106 [5]. We have used this technique to perform the first measurement of the scalar J-coupling between nuclear spins in van-der-Waals molecules, something that has never been observed before. More recently, we constructed a liquid-He apparatus to acquire Xe spin precession data using a low-Tc SQUID and achieved a signal-to-noise ratio of 106. We are currently investigating factors affecting the stability of Xe spin precession signals in this system using a superconducting magnetic shield and a persistent current magnetic field coil.

We investigate the collider signatures of neutral and charged long-lived particles (LLPs), predicted by the supersymmetric $B\ensuremath{-}L$ extension of the Standard Model (BLSSM), at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The BLSSM is a natural extension of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) that can account for nonvanishing neutrino masses. We show that the lightest right-handed sneutrino can be the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), while the next-to-the LSP (NLSP) is either the lightest left-handed sneutrino or the left-handed stau, which are natural candidates for the LLPs. We analyze the displaced vertex signature of the neutral LLP (the lightest left-handed sneutrino) and the charged tracks associated with the charged LLP (the left-handed stau). We show that the production cross sections of our neutral and charged LLPs are relatively large, namely of order $\mathcal{O}(1)\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fb}$. Thus, probing these particles at the LHC is quite plausible. In addition, we find that the displaced dilepton associated with the lightest left-handed sneutrino has a large impact parameter that discriminates it from other SM leptons. We also emphasize that the charged track associated with the left-handed stau has a large momentum with slow moving charged tracks, hence it is distinguished from the SM background, and therefore it can be accessible at the LHC.

A search for the $P$- and $CP(T)$-violating electric dipole moments (EDM) of atoms, particles and nuclei with sensitivity up to $10^{-15}$ in units of magnetic dipole moments, allowed by all discrete symmetries, is one of the topical problems of modern physics. According to Sakharov, $CP$-violation is one of the three key criteria of baryogenesis in generally accepted paradigm of the Big Bang cosmology. All three criteria are supported by the Standard Model (SM), but it fails to describe the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe. This is regarded a strong argument in favor of existence of $CP$-symmetry breaking mechanisms beyond minimal SM, which can lead to measurable EDMs of atoms, particles and nuclei. Direct searches for EDM of charged particles and nuclei are possible only in storage rings (COSY, NICA). After successful studies by the JEDI collaboration at the COSY synchrotron, at the forefront is a search for the proton EDM in an electrostatic storage ring with the proton spin frozen at the magic energy with projected sensitivity $d_p\sim 10^{-29}\,e\cdot$cm. Following a brief introduction to the $CP$-violation physics and the baryogenesis, the review presents a detailed discussion of significant contributions to the spin dynamics from the terrestrial gravity along with the new effects of Earth's rotation in ultrasensitive searches for the EDM of charged particles and neutrons. Quite remarkably, for the projected sensitivity to the proton EDM, these false EDM effects can by one to two orders of magnitude exceed the signal of the proton EDM, and become comparable to an EDM contribution in experiments with ultracold neutrons. We also discuss the role of a precessing spin as a detector of the axion-like dark matter, and consider applications of the quantum gravitational anomalies to the dense matter hydrodynamics and the spin phenomena in the non-central nuclear collisions.