A recent study that has implications for solving one of the most important open questions in physics - the difference between matter and antimatter in the universe - is the "most precise measurement yet" of the electron's permanent electric dipole moment. This matter-antimatter imbalance can be explained by breaking the charge odd-even symmetry.
A new study provides the most precise measurement yet of an electron's permanent electric dipole moment, providing important insights into the imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe. This research uses electrons in molecular ions to improve the previous best measurement results by about 2.4 times, helping to refine or expand the Standard Model of particle physics.
The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics predicts a slight breaking of this symmetry, but it is not enough to explain the actual observed imbalance. To address this discrepancy, many extensions to the standard model have been proposed. To test this model extension, desktop experiments measuring the electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) - a measure of symmetry breaking - are very promising.
Here, in order to measure the electron dipole moment with extremely high precision, TanyaRoussy and others used a powerful method: binding the electrons inside the molecular ion, placing them in a huge intramolecular electric field.
Mingyu Fan and Andrew Jaich wrote in a related Perspective article: "Ruxi and others spent a lot of effort to carefully study their experimental instruments and measurement techniques to be able to understand the system uncertainties in detail and ensure that false signals are not introduced by mistake."
Their results improved the previous optimal upper limit of eEDM size by about 2.4 times.