A novel approach to measure the electric dipole moment of the isotope 129-Xe

Abstract

Permanent electric dipole moments (EDM) of fundamental systems are promising systems to find new CP violation beyond the Standard Model. Our EDM experiment is based on hyper-polarized liquid xenon droplets of sub-millimeter size on a micro-fabricated structure, placed in a low-field NMR setup. Implementation of rotating electric fields enables a conceptually new EDM measurement technique, allowing thorough investigation of systematic effects. Still, a Ramsey-type spin precession experiment with static electric field can be realized at similar sensitivity within the same setup. Employing superconducting pick-up coils and highly sensitive LTc-SQUIDs, a large array of independent measurements can be performed simultaneously. With our approach we aim to finally increase the sensitivity on the EDM of 129Xe by more than three orders of magnitude.