Experimental search for electric dipole moments of light radioactive nuclei

We discuss a search for the electric dipole moment (EDM) of a light beta-radioactive ion using a compact ion trap by adapting the “frozen-spin” method. The measurement will be done on ions stripped of their valence electrons, thereby bypassing the significant Schiff screening that hinders the application of successful contemporary EDM searches using heavy neutral atoms and molecules to light nuclei. We identified <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <a:mrow> <a:mmultiscripts> <a:mrow> <a:mi>Li</a:mi> </a:mrow> <a:mprescripts/> <a:none/> <a:mrow> <a:mn>8</a:mn> </a:mrow> </a:mmultiscripts> </a:mrow> </a:math> as the most promising candidate for a proof-of-concept EDM search and we estimate that the current indirect proton EDM limit of a few <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <c:mrow> <c:msup> <c:mrow> <c:mn>10</c:mn> </c:mrow> <c:mrow> <c:mo>−</c:mo> <c:mn>25</c:mn> </c:mrow> </c:msup> <c:mtext> </c:mtext> <c:mtext> </c:mtext> <c:mrow> <c:mi>e</c:mi> <c:mo>·</c:mo> <c:mi>cm</c:mi> </c:mrow> </c:mrow> </c:math> set by <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <e:mrow> <e:mmultiscripts> <e:mrow> <e:mi>Hg</e:mi> </e:mrow> <e:mprescripts/> <e:none/> <e:mrow> <e:mn>199</e:mn> </e:mrow> </e:mmultiscripts> </e:mrow> </e:math> measurements can be surpassed with a week of measurement time at existing facilities.