Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project

Ever since its predication and discovery nearly a century ago, antimatter has remained an intriguing field of discussion for both research and public communities alike. Despite its exquisite and hidden nature- humankind did not notice its bare existence for millenniums- scientists are nowadays puzzled about why there is actually so little antimatter in the universe. All fundamental laws of physics apply identically for matter and antimatter. Consequently, one would assume that matter and antimatter are found in exactly equal amounts in the universe, too. However, when looking into the sky there are simply no anti-matter objects out there. This mysterious absence of antimatter in the macrocosmos of the universe challenges our most fundamental theory of the microcosmos. This fundamental theory is known as the Standard Model of particle physics which describes the `building blocks' of Nature. The cosmological imbalance of matter and antimatter suggests that the Standard Model is incomplete. Thus, this so-called matter--antimatter asymmetry in the universe has emerged as one of the most tantalising questions of contemporary physics. In this context, experimental searches for a permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of a fundamental particle or system are of particular scientific appeal. Their existence would imply CP -violation which could explain the observed matter--antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Today, EDMs are intensively searched for in a large variety of physical systems, ranging from elementary particles, to nucleons, atoms, and molecules. In particular, molecules have become extremely sensitive probes, for instance, for EDM contributions by the electron. In order to substantially boost the experimental sensitivity, molecules in which one or more of its constituting atoms contain a short-lived, radioactive nucleus have recently been proposed as systems with large but unexplored discovery potential for EDMs or more generally for new physics in general. However, radioactive molecules are challenging to address experimentally; the techniques employed in molecules of stable atomic nuclei are usually not directly applicable. In addition to the short half-lives, radioactive samples are only available in minute quantities at dedicated radioactive ion beam (RIB) facilities such as at ISAC and ARIEL at TRIUMF, Vancouver. The goal of the present proposal is, thus, to design and prepare a novel, leading-edge experimental program on radioactive molecules at TRIUMF. The work will be focused on the construction of a cryogenic ion trap for spectroscopy of radioactive molecules, to design future instruments for precision experiments, and to form a strong Canadian collaboration on radioactive molecules.