Activities in the area of fundamental symmetries
 | Atomic parity violation in laser-trapped francium [Gwinner] The weak interaction manifests itself in atoms via the parity-violating Z-boson exchange between electrons and the quarks in the nucleus. In francium, the heaviest alkali atom, the APV effect is almost 20x larger than in Cs. Fr has no stable isotope, and to get a sufficiently large sample, the FrPNC collaboration plans to laser-trap and cool Fr on-line at the ISAC radioactive beam facility at TRIUMF. [More Information] |
 | Parity Violating Electron Scattering: Measurements of the weak charge of the proton and electron. [Birchall, Falk, Gericke, Page, van Oers] We use high precision measurements of parity violating (PV) electron scattering on the nucleon and the electron, to probe for new physics, beyond the Standard Model (SM), at the TeV energy scale. SM predicted observables, such as the weak charges of the proton and the electron are sensitive to tiny changes in physics at the smallest scale. We are currently running the Qweak experiment and are starting the development of the Moller experiment. [More information] |
 | Search for violation of Lorentz invariance [Gwinner] This experiment at the TSR heavy-ion storage ring at the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics is the most sensitive test of relativistic time dilation. Essentially, we have realized a two-velocity ion clock using Li+ ions stored at 3% and 6.4% of the speed of light. This experiment has now moved to ESR ring at GSI in Darmstadt, Germany, where speed beyond 30% c can be reached. [More Information] |
Beta-neutrino correlations in 8 Li with a radiofrequency ion trap at Argonne National Laboratory.
 | see also: Radiative corrections in parity violating electron scattering (Blunden, theory page) |