Parity violation in hydrogen and longitudinal atomic beam spin echo I

We discuss the propagation of hydrogen atoms in static electric and magnetic fields in a longitudinal atomic beam spin echo (lABSE) apparatus. There the atoms acquire geometric (Berry) phases that exhibit a new manifestation of parity-(P-)violation in atomic physics. We provide analytical as well as numerical calculations of the behaviour of the metastable 2S states of hydrogen. The conditions for electromagnetic field configurations that allow for adiabatic evolution of the relevant atomic states are investigated. Our results provide the theoretical basis for the discussion of possible measurements of P-violating geometric phases in lABSE experiments.     

Radium ion: a candidate for measuring atomic parity violation

Parity Non Conservation (PNC) in atomic systems can be observed in experiments using a single trapped ion and intense laser fields. The original proposal is based on a single barium ion. Here, we study the feasibility for carrying out similar experiment with a single radium ion. Since the PNC effect in atomic system increases faster than the Z ³, where Z is the atomic number, radium is a natural choice. The advantages and disadvantages of measuring atomic parity violation in radium ion are discussed.     

Massive spin-momentum entanglement measured in an atomic beam spin echo experiment

In this paper we present an experiment performed with an atomic beam spin echo interferometer, in which massive intraparticle entanglement is demonstrated. In the longitudinal Stern-Gerlach arrangement the nuclear spin and linear momentum of ³He particles are inextricably linked, such that the overall system state cannot be written as the tensor product of the corresponding Hilbert spaces. The measured data show maximal entanglement between ℋ _I and ℋ _p . This hybrid system of one quantum and one classical degree of freedom is a textbook example of entanglement between discrete and continuous observables.     

Nuclear spin dependent atomic parity violation,nuclear anapole moments and the hadronic axial neutral current

Left-right asymmetries in atomic transitions, depending upon the nuclear spin, could be a source of information on the neutral hadronic axial current. We show that the relevant electroweak parameter can be extracted from experiment by measuring hyperfine component ratios which do not involve the knowledge of the atomic wave function. In the standard electroweak model, the parity violating electron-nucleus interaction associated with the hadronic axial neutral current is accidently suppressed and, as a consequence, dominated by the electron interaction with the nuclear anapole moment, which describes the effect of the parity violating nuclear forces on the nucleus electromagnetic current. One of our objectives was to identify the various physical mechanisms which determine the size of the nuclear anapole moments. As an important step, we have established a simple relation between the anapole moment and the nuclear spin magnetization. From this relation it follows that the computation of the anapole moment can be reduced to that of one-body operators. The basic tool is a unitary transformationW which eliminates the one-body parity violating potential from the nuclear hamiltonian. It generalizes, to more realistic situations, a procedure used by F.C. Michel in the case of constant nuclear density. The fact that the transformationW does not commute with the residual spin-dependent nucleon-nucleon interaction can be accounted for — within some approximation — by a renormalization of the effective coupling constants which appear in the one-body reduction of the two-body parity violating nucleon-nucleon interaction induced by meson exchange. A particular attention was paid to nuclear correlation effects. They are treated semi-empirically in the independent pair approximation. The nuclear anapole moments of⁸⁵Rb,¹³³Cs, and²⁰⁹Bi have been evaluated for three sets of parity violating meson-nucleon coupling constants, taking into account configuration mixing effects in a semi-empirical way. We suggest a possible strategy to disentangle the axial neutral current from the anapole moment contribution. It requires experiments, accurate to few tenths of a percent, performed on several heavy nuclei. The results should be collected in a two-dimensional plot involving a suitably chosen set of variables (X, Y). In an ideal situation — small theoretical uncertainties —the points corresponding to various nuclei should fall on a straight line which crosses the lineX=0 at a point the ordinate of which is the sought for axial coupling constant.     

Note on parity mixing in atomic hydrogen

We comment on the feasibility of an experiment we recently proposed to look for possible parity-mixing in atomic hydrogen.     

Nuclear spin echo experiments in solid H2

Measurements of the nuclear spin echo decays are reported in solid H₂ after two-pulse and three-pulse sequences. The characteristic times T₂ and τ_E describe the spin-spin interaction and the stimulated echo decay respectively. A sharp increase in τ_E is observed upon cooling into the long-range orientationally ordered phase, and a continuous one during freezing into a quadrupolar glass. However, no significant change is observed for T₂ during either process.     

Pump-probe measurement of atomic parity violation in cesium with a precision of 2.6%

We present the atomic parity violation measurements made in Cs vapour using a pump-probe scheme. After pulsed excitation of the 6S -7S forbidden transition in the presence of a longitudinal electric field, a laser beam resonant with one of the 7S -6P transitions stimulates the 7S atom emission for a duration of 20ns. The polarisation of the amplified probe beam is analysed. A seven-fold signature allows discrimination of the parity-violating linear dichroism, and real-time calibration by a similar, known, parity-conserving linear dichroism. The zero-field linear dichroism signal due to the magnetic dipole transition moment is observed for the first time, and used for in situ determination of the electric field. The result, ImE ₁ ^pv = (- 808±21)×10^-14 ea ₀ , is in perfect agreement with the corresponding, more precise measurement obtained by the Boulder group. A transverse field configuration with large probe amplification could bring atomic parity violation measurements to the 0.1% accuracy level.     

Spin concentration in a possible ESR dosimeter: An electron spin echo study on X-irradiated ammonium tartrate

Several single crystals and powder samples of ammonium tartrate, recently proposed as a possible ESR dosimeter, have been X-irradiated with different doses. The total radical concentration has been determined by quantitative cw ESR, by comparison with a standard. The samples have been studied by electron spin echo spectroscopy. The two-pulse echo decay has been obtained and simulated by a single exponential function for different values of the microwave power of the pulses and for different pulse lengths. The dependence of the phase memory time TM on the microwave power has been exploited to get information on the contribution of the instantaneous diffusion to spin dephasing. At room temperature in the range of radical concentrations of 10(18)-10(19) spins/cm3 the instantaneous diffusion is the dominant spin dephasing mechanism. The linear dependence of the instantaneous diffusion on the total concentration of the radicals is in agreement with the theory. From the latter result we conclude that the average radical-radical distance corresponds to a random distribution of the radicals in the matrix. A simple method of measuring the radical concentration by the ESE decays in powder samples of irradiated ammonium tartrate is described.     

Observation of a parity violation in cesium

We have measured a parity violation in the 6S–7S transition of Cs in an electric field. Our result is Im $\text{E}{}_1{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>pv</mtext>}}\text{β}\text{= -1.34 ± 0.22}$$\text{(}\text{rms statistical deviation}\text{) ± ～0.11 (}\text{systematic uncertainty}\text{)}\text{mV}\text{cm;}\text{E}{}_1{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>pv</mtext>}}$ is the parity violating electric dipole amplitude, ß is the vector polarizability. This result is consistent with the Weinberg-Salam prediction.     

Cylindrical symmetry discrimination of magnetoelectric optical systematic effects in a pump-probe atomic parity violation experiment

A pump-probe atomic parity violation (APV) experiment performed in a longitudinal electric field , has the advantage of providing a signal which breaks mirror symmetry but preserves cylindrical symmetry of the set-up, i.e. this signal remains invariant when the pump and probe linear polarizations are simultaneously rotated about their common direction of propagation. The excited vapor acts on the probe beam as a linear dichroic amplifier, imprinting a very specific signature on the detected signal. Our differential polarimeter is oriented to yield a null result unless a chirality of some kind is acting on the excited atoms. Ideally, only the APV ( -odd) and the calibration ( -even) signals should participate in such a chiral atomic response, a situation highly favourable to sensitive detection of a tiny effect. In the present work, we give a thorough analysis of possible undesirable defects such as spurious transverse fields or misalignments, which may spoil the ideal configuration and generate a chiral response leading to possible systematics. We study a possible way to get rid of such defects by performing global rotations of the experiment by incremental angular steps , leaving both stray fields and misalignments unaltered. Our analysis shows that at least two defects are necessary for the -odd polarimeter output to be affected; a modulation in the global rotations reveals the transverse nature of the defects. The harmful systematic effects are those which subsist after we average over four configurations obtained by successive rotations of 45 . They require the presence of a stray transverse electric field. By doing auxiliary atomic measurements made in known, applied, magnetic fields which amplify the systematic effect, it is possible to measure the transverse E-field and to minimize it. Transverse magnetic fields must also be carefully compensated following a similar procedure. We discuss the feasibility of reducing the systematic uncertainty below the one percent level. We also propose statistical correlation tests as diagnoses of the aforementioned systematic effects.Received: 19 November 2003, Published online: 19 February 2004PACS: 32.80.Ys Weak-interaction effects in atoms - 32.60. + i Zeeman and Stark effects - 33.55.Fi Other magnetooptical and electrooptical effects - 42.25.Lc Birefringence     

New observation of a parity violation in cesium

The parity violation induced by weak neutral currents is measured in a ΔF=1 hyperfine component of the 6S–7S transition of the Cs atom. The measured value (statistical rms deviation) ±0.12 (systematic uncertainty) mV/cm, agrees with our previous measurement in a ΔF=0 component, and constitutes an important cross-check. Our result excludes a parity violation induced by a purely axial hadronic neutral current.     

Ra+ ion trapping: toward an atomic parity violation measurement and an optical clock

A single Ra⁺ ion stored in a Paul radio frequency ion trap has excellent potential for a precision measurement of the electroweak mixing angle at low momentum transfer and as the most stable optical clock. The effective transport and cooling of singly charged ions of the isotopes ²⁰⁹Ra to ²¹⁴Ra in a gas filled radio frequency quadrupole device is reported. The absolute frequencies of the transition 7s²S_1/2–7d²D_3/2 at wavelength 828 nm have been determined in ^212–214Ra⁺ with ≤19 MHz uncertainty using laser spectroscopy on small samples of ions trapped in a linear Paul trap at the online facility Trapped Radioactive Isotopes: µicrolaboratories for fundamental Physics (TRIµP) of the Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut.     

Atomic parity violation in a single trapped radium ion

Atomic parity violation (APV) experiments are sensitive probes of the electroweak interaction at low energy. These experiments are competitive with and complementary to high-energy collider experiments. The APV signal is strongly enhanced in heavy atoms and it is measurable by exciting suppressed (M1, E2) transitions. The status of APV experiments and theory are reviewed as well as the prospects of an APV experiment using one single trapped Ra^?+? ion. The predicted enhancement factor of the APV effect in Ra^?+? is about 50 times larger than in Cs atoms. However, certain spectroscopic information on Ra^?+? needed to constrain the required atomic many-body theory, was lacking. Using the AGOR cyclotron and the TRI??P facility at KVI in Groningen, short-lived ^212???214Ra^?+? ions were produced and trapped. First ever excited-state laser spectroscopy was performed on the trapped ions. These measurements provide a benchmark for the atomic theory required to extract the electroweak mixing angle to sub-1% accuracy and are an important step towards an APV experiment in a single trapped Ra^?+? ion.     

New manifestation of atomic parity violation in cesium: a chiral optical gain induced by linearly polarized 6S-7S excitation

We have detected, by using stimulated emission, an atomic parity violation (APV) in the form of a chiral optical gain of a cesium vapor on the 7S-6P(3/2) transition, consecutive to linearly polarized 6S-7S excitation. We demonstrate the validity of this detection method of APV, by presenting a 9% accurate measurement of expected sign and magnitude. We stress several advantages of this new approach which fully exploits the cylindrical symmetry of the setup. Future measurements at the percent level will provide an important cross-check of an existing more precise result obtained by a different method.     

Search for a parity violation induced by neutral currents in the 6S–7S transition of atomic cesium

Parity violating, time-reversal invariant, weak neutral currents can induce an electric dipole transition moment, E₁^p.v., between atomic states of same parity. We report here on the preliminary results of an experiment designed to measure E₁^p.v. in the 6S–7S transition of atomic cesium, using a polarization effect characteristic of the interference of E₁^p.v. with the electric dipole transition moment E₁^ind. induced by a d.c. electric field. At a 90% confidence level we find the upper limit: |E₁^p.v.| < 2.0 × 10^?9|e|a₀. As a consequence the coupling constant of the electron-nucleon interaction involving the product of an axial electronic neutral current by a vector nucleonic one must be less than 44 G_F.     

Amplification of atomic L-R asymmetries by stimulated emission: experimental demonstration of sensitivity enhancement valuable for parity violation measurements

While all Atomic Parity Violation experiments on highly forbidden transitions in a Stark field have used the detection of fluorescence signals, our group is engaged in an experiment on the cesium transition that uses a pump-probe scheme. The role of the probe beam is to detect the 7S state by stimulated emission. The detected Left-Right asymmetry () appears directly on the transmitted probe beam and the technique relies on differential-mode atomic polarimetry. We present here experimental results which illustrate two essential features of this approach. First, is amplified when the optical thickness for the probe beam is increased, hence it is an increasing function of the Stark field. Secondly, the experimental sensitivity to is simultaneously increase d, as demonstrated by our measurements of the signal-to-noise ratio. We emphasize also the advantage of choosing a probe transition that involves a “dark” state: the amplification is preserved at high levels of the probe intensity because saturation effects are greatly reduced. Received: 8 october 1997 / Accepted: 21 November 1997     

Progress in stored ion beam experiments on atomic and molecular processes

Stored fast ion beams in atomic and molecular collision experiments are discussed with an emphasis on electron–ion interactions at low relative energies. Recent progress was obtained in electron collision spectroscopy using an electron-cooled stored ion beam and a separate electron target in the same storage ring; from a cryogenic photocathode, electron beams with internal temperatures of 5 to 10 K were produced. Results are presented for dielectronic recombination resonances, resolving the hyperfine structure of stored lithiumlike scandium ions and obtaining precise results for the fine structure splitting of these ions, and for ro-vibrational resonances in the recombination of electrons with hydrogen molecular ions, revealing sharp structures down to 2 meV. An overview of the cryogenic storage ring (CSR) project in Heidelberg is given.     

Guiding and trapping of electron spin waves in atomic hydrogen gas

We present a high magnetic field study of electron spin waves in atomic hydrogen gas compressed to high densities of ～10(18) cm(-3) at temperatures ranging from 0.26 to 0.6 K. We observed a variety of spin wave modes caused by the identical spin rotation effect with strong dependence on the spatial profile of the polarizing magnetic field. We demonstrate confinement of these modes in regions of strong magnetic field and manipulate their spatial distribution by changing the position of the field maximum.