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Experimental search for electric dipole moments of light radioactive nuclei

Chavdar Dutsov1,*,†, Timothy Hume1,2, Maxim Pospelov3,4, and Philipp Schmidt-Wellenburg1

  • 1PSI Center for Neutron and Muon Sciences, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
  • 2ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
  • 3School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
  • 4William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA

  • *Present address: CERN, Esplanade des Particules 1, Meyrin, Switzerland
  • †Contact author: chavdar.dutsov@cern.ch
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 076031 – Published 23 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/hl5s-dqqw

Abstract

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 Li8 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 10−25  e·cm set by Hg199 measurements can be surpassed with a week of measurement time at existing facilities.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 076031– Published 23 October, 2025
  • Received 18 June 2025
  • Accepted 7 October 2025
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