We are pursuing an experiment to measure the electric dipole moment of the electron using the molecule PbO. This measurement requires the ability to prepare quantum states with orientation of the molecular axis and, simultaneously, alignment of the e
lectron spin perpendicular to this axis. It also requires efficient detection of the evolution of the spin alignment direction within such a state. We describe a series of experiments that have achieved these goals, and the features and limitations of the techniques. We also discuss possible new approaches for improved efficiency in this and similar systems.
During its late orbital mission at Jupiter the Galileo spacecraft made two passages through the giant planets gossamer ring system. The impact-ionization dust detector on board successfully recorded dust impacts during both ring passages and provided
the first in-situ measurements from a dusty planetary ring. In all, a few thousand dust impacts were counted with the instrument accumulators during both ring passages, but only a total of 110 complete data sets of dust impacts were transmitted to Earth. Detected particle sizes range from about 0.2 to 5 micron, extending the known size distribution by an order of magnitude towards smaller particles than previously derived from optical imaging (Showalter et al. 2008). The grain size distribution increases towards smaller particles and shows an excess of these tiny motes in the Amalthea gossamer ring compared to the Thebe ring. The size distribution for the Amalthea ring derived from our in-situ measurements for the small grains agrees very well with the one obtained from images for large grains. Our analysis shows that particles contributing most to the optical cross-section are about 5 micron in radius, in agreement with imaging results. The measurements indicate a large drop in particle flux immediately interior to Thebes orbit and some detected particles seem to be on highly-tilted orbits with inclinations up to 20 deg.
