Towards improved measurements of parity violation in atomic ytterbium
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Towards improved measurements of parity violation in atomic ytterbium D. Antypas1 · A. Fabricant2 · L. Bougas2 · K. Tsigutkin3 · D. Budker1,2,4
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017
Abstract We report on progress towards performing precision measurements of parity violation in Yb, in which the theoretical prediction for a strong weak-interaction-induced effect in the 6s2 1 S0 → 5d6s 3 D1 optical transition at 408 nm has already been confirmed, with a measurement of the effect at the ≈10 % level of accuracy. With a new atomic-beam apparatus offering enhanced sensitivity, we are aiming at precisely determining the parity violation observable in Yb, which will allow us to probe the distributions of neutrons in different isotopes, investigate physics beyond the Standard Model, as well as to study intra-nucleus weak interactions, through an observation of the anapole moment of Yb nuclei with nonzero spin. We present the experimental principle employed to probe atomic parity violation, describe our new apparatus, and discuss the attained experimental sensitivity as well as the methods for characterizing systematics in these measurements. Keywords Weak interaction · Nuclear structure · Atomic spectroscopy · Atomic beam Mathematics Subject Classfication (2010) PACS: 32.80.Ys · 32.70.Cs · 32.60.+i
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Application of Lasers and Storage Devices in Atomic Nuclei Research: “Recent Achievements and Future Prospects” (LASER 2016), Pozna´n, Poland, 16–19 May 2016 Edited by Krassimira Marinova, Magdalena Kowalska and Zdzislaw Błaszczak D. Antypas
[email protected] 1
Helmholtz-Institut Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
2
Institut f¨ur Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universit¨at Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany
3
ASML, Veldhoven, The Netherlands
4
Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA
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Hyperfine Interact (2017) 238:21
1 Introduction The Yb parity violation (PV) experiment at the University of California, Berkeley succeeded in 2009 in measuring the largest parity violation(PV) effect ever observed in any atomic system [1, 2], about 100 times larger than that of Cs, in which the most precise measurement to date has been performed [3, 4]. Responsible for the size of the effect is a large weak-interaction-induced mixing of two opposite-parity states, the 5d6s 3 D1 and 6s6p 1 P1 excited states of Yb (Fig. 1). Small energy spacing between these and favorable configuration mixing in the 6s6p 1 P1 state result in strong mixing of the 3 D1 and 1 P1 states, as first noted in [5], where a prediction for the size of the effect was made. Although this first observation of the Yb PV-effect at Berkeley confirmed the theoretical prediction of [5], the attained accuracy in the PV-related observable was at the 10 % level. With a new apparatus recently constructed at the Helmholtz-Institut Mainz in Germany, we have enhanced the experimental sensitivity to a degree that wil
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