No Arabic abstract
An array of sixteen laser-pumped scalar Cs magnetometers was part of the neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) experiment taking data at the Paul Scherrer Institute in 2015 and 2016. It was deployed to measure the gradients of the experiments magnetic field and to monitor their temporal evolution. The originality of the array lies in its compact design, in which a single near-infrared diode laser drives all magnetometers that are located in a high-vacuum chamber, with a selection of the sensors mounted on a high-voltage electrode. We describe details of the Cs sensors construction and modes of operation, emphasizing the accuracy and sensitivity of the magnetic field readout. We present two applications of the magnetometer array directly beneficial to the nEDM experiment: (i) the implementation of a strategy to correct for the drift of the vertical magnetic field gradient and (ii) a procedure to homogenize the magnetic field. The first reduces the uncertainty of the new nEDM result. The second enables transverse neutron spin relaxation times exceeding 1500 s, improving the statistical sensitivity of the nEDM experiment by about 35% and effectively increasing the rate of nEDM data taking by a factor of 1.8.
We propose an experimental search for an axion-induced oscillating electric dipole moment (OEDM) for electrons using state-of-the-art alkali vapor-cell atomic magnetometers. The axion is a hypothesized new fundamental particle which can resolve the strong charge-parity problem and be a prominent dark matter candidate. This experiment utilizes an atomic magnetometer as both a source of optically polarized electron spins and a magnetic-field sensor. The interaction of the axion field, oscillating at a frequency equal to the axion mass, with an electron spin induces a sizable OEDM of the electron at the same frequency as the axion field. When the alkali vapor is subjected to an electric field and a magnetic field, the electron OEDM interacts with the electric field, resulting in an electron spin precession at the spins Larmor frequency in the magnetic field. The resulting precession signal can be sensitively detected with a probe laser beam of the atomic magnetometer. We estimate that the experiment is sensitive to the axion-photon interaction in ultralight axion masses from $10^{-15}$ to $10^{-10}$~eV. It is able to improve the current experimental limit up to 5 orders of magnitude, exploring new axion parameter spaces.
We report on a laser based $^{199}$Hg co-magnetometer deployed in an experiment searching for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron. We demonstrate a more than five times increased signal to-noise-ratio in a direct comparison measurement with its $^{204}$Hg discharge bulb-based predecessor. An improved data model for the extraction of important system parameters such as the degrees of absorption and polarization is derived. Laser- and lamp-based data-sets can be consistently described by the improved model which permits to compare measurements using the two different light sources and to explain the increase in magnetometer performance. The laser-based magnetometer satisfies the magnetic field sensitivity requirements for the next generation nEDM experiments.
A Cs fountain electron electric dipole moment (EDM) experiment using electric-field quantization is demonstrated. With magnetic fields reduced to 200 pT or less, the electric field lifts the degeneracy between hyperfine levels of different|mF| and, along with the slow beam and fountain geometry, suppresses systematics from motional magnetic fields. Transitions are induced and the atoms polarized and analyzed in field-free regions. The feasibility of reaching a sensitivity to an electron EDM of 2 x 10 exp(-50) C-m [1.3 x 10 exp(-29) e-cm] in a cesium fountain experiment is discussed.
We investigate a search for the oscillating current induced by axion dark matter in an external magnetic field using optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs). This experiment is based upon the LC circuit axion detection concept of Sikivie, Sullivan, and Tanner. The modification of Maxwells equations caused by the axion-photon coupling results in a minute oscillating magnetic field at the frequency equal to the axion mass in the presence of magnetic field. This induced magnetic field could be searched for using an LC circuit amplifier with an OPM, the most sensitive cryogen-free magnetic-field sensor, in a room temperature experiment, avoiding the need for a complicated and expensive cryogenic system. We discuss how an existing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experiment can be modified to search for axions in a previously unexplored part of the parameter space. Our existing detection setup, optimized for MRI, is already sensitive to an axion-photon coupling of $10^{-7}$ GeV$^{-1}$ for an axion mass near $3times10^{-10}$ eV. While this is ruled out by limits from astrophysics and solar axion searches, we show that realistic modifications, and optimization of the experiment for axion detection, can set a new limit on the axion-photon coupling up to three orders of magnitude beyond the current best limit, for axion masses between $10^{-11}$ eV and $10^{-7}$ eV.ion masses between $10^{-11}$ eV and $10^{-7}$ eV.
New sources of CP violation beyond the Standard Model of particle physics could be revealed in the laboratory by measuring a non-zero electric dipole moment (EDM) of a spin 1/2 particle such as the neutron. Despite the great sensitivity attained after 60 years of developments, the result of the experiments is still compatible with zero. Still, new experiments have a high discovery potential since they probe new physics at the multi-TeV scale, beyond the reach of direct searches at colliders. Progress in precision on the neutron EDM is limited by a systematic effect arising from the relativistic motional field $vec{E} times vec{v} / c^2$ experienced by the particles moving in the measurement chamber in combination with the residual magnetic gradients. This effect would normally forbid a significant increase of the size of the chamber, sadly hindering the increase of neutron statistics. We propose a new measurement concept to evade this limitation in a room-temperature experiment employing a mercury co-magnetometer. It consists ajusting the static magnetic field $B_0$ to a `magic value which cancels the false EDM of the mercury. The magic setting is $7.2,muT$ for a big cylindrical double-chamber of diameter $100$~cm.