PARITY VIOLATION AND ELECTRIC DIPOLE MOMENTS IN ATOMS AND MOLECULES

Abstract

We review the current status of the study of parity and time invariance violation in atoms, nuclei and molecules. We focus on parity nonconservation (PNC) in cesium (CS) and three of the most promising areas of research: (i) PNC in a chain of isotopes, (ii) search for nuclear anapole moments, and (iii) search for permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) of atoms and molecules, which in turn are caused by either an electron EDM or nuclear T, P-odd moments such as a nuclear EDM or nuclear Schiff moment.