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  • Open Access

Equivalent electric dipole moment in SMEFT

Marco Ardu* and Nicola Valori†

  • *Contact author: marco.ardu@ific.uv.es
  • †Contact author: nicola.valori@uv.es
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 015035 – Published 23 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2yfc-jbx2

Abstract

The electric dipole moment of the electron (eEDM) is typically investigated in experiments using paramagnetic molecules. However, the physical observable in these searches consists of a linear combination of CP-violating interactions, rather than the eEDM alone, which is commonly referred to as the equivalent EDM of the system. Assuming the presence of new CP-odd physics from heavy degrees of freedom, we parametrize its effects within the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) framework. We systematically compute the contributions to the full low-energy direction probed by EDM searches, focusing on leading-order effects at dimension six and one-loop level, while also discussing selected two-loop and dimension-eight contributions. We find that eEDM experiments are sensitive to a broader class of SMEFT operators than previously recognized.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 015035– Published 23 January, 2026
  • Received 9 April 2025
  • Accepted 10 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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