Abstract The best upper limit for the electron electric dipole moment was recently set by the ACME collaboration. This experiment measures an electron spin-precession in a cold beam of ThO molecules in their metastable state. Improvement in the statistical and systematic uncertainties is possible with more efficient use of molecules from the source and better magnetometry in the experiment, respectively. Here, we report measurements of several relevant properties of the long-lived state of ThO, and show that this state is a very useful resource for both these purposes. TheQstate lifetime is long enough that its decay during the time of flight in the ACME beam experiment is negligible. The large electric dipole moment measured for theQstate, giving rise to a large linear Stark shift, is ideal for an electrostatic lens that increases the fraction of molecules detected downstream. The measured magnetic moment of theQstate is also large enough to be used as a sensitive co-magnetometer in ACME. Finally, we show that theQstate has a large transition dipole moment to the state, which allows for efficient population transfer between the ground state and theQstate via Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP). We demonstrate 90 % STIRAP transfer efficiency. In the course of these measurements, we also determine the magnetic moment ofCstate, the transition dipole moment, and branching ratios of decays from theCstate.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on October 27, 2026
Onset of CN Emission in 3I/ATLAS: Evidence for Strong Carbon-chain Depletion
Abstract Interstellar objects provide a direct window into the environmental conditions around stars other than the Sun. The recent discovery of 3I/ATLAS, a new interstellar comet, offers a unique opportunity to investigate the physical and chemical properties of interstellar objects and to compare them with those of comets in our own solar system. In this Letter we present the results of a 10 night spectroscopic and photometric monitoring campaign with the 2.4 m Hiltner and 1.3 m McGraw–Hill telescopes at the MDM Observatory. The campaign was conducted between August 8 and 17 while 3I/ATLAS was inbound at heliocentric distances of 3.2–2.9 au. Our observations captured the onset of optical gas activity. Nightly spectra reveal a weak CN emission feature in the coma of 3I/ATLAS, absent during the first nights but steadily strengthening thereafter. We measure a CN production rate ofQ(CN) ∼ 6 × 1024s−1, toward the lower end of activity observed in solar system comets. Simultaneous photometry also indicates a small but measurable increase in the coma’s radial profile and increasingr-bandAfρwith values in the order of ∼300 cm. We derived a gas-to-dust production ratio of . Our upper limit on the C2-to-CN ratio ( ) indicates that 3I/ATLAS is a strongly carbon-chain-depleted comet. Further observations of 3I/ATLAS are required to verify the apparent carbon-chain depletion and to explore whether such composition represents a recurring trait of the interstellar comet population.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2303553
- PAR ID:
- 10646046
- Publisher / Repository:
- AAS Journals
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
- Volume:
- 993
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2041-8205
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- L23
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract The genericity of Arnold diffusion in the analytic category is an open problem. In this paper, we study this problem in the followinga prioriunstable Hamiltonian system with a time-periodic perturbation where , withn,d⩾ 1,Viare Morse potentials, andɛis a small non-zero parameter. The unperturbed Hamiltonian is not necessarily convex, and the induced inner dynamics does not need to satisfy a twist condition. Using geometric methods we prove that Arnold diffusion occurs for generic analytic perturbationsH1. Indeed, the set of admissibleH1isCωdense andC3open (a fortiori,Cωopen). Our perturbative technique for the genericity is valid in theCktopology for allk∈ [3, ∞) ∪ {∞,ω}.more » « less
-
Abstract Polyatomic molecules have been identified as sensitive probes of charge-parity violating and parity violating physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). For example, many linear triatomic molecules are both laser-coolable and have parity doublets in the ground electronic state arising from the bending vibration, both features that can greatly aid BSM searches. Understanding the state is a crucial prerequisite to precision measurements with linear polyatomic molecules. Here, we characterize the fundamental bending vibration of YbOH using high-resolution optical spectroscopy on the nominally forbidden transition at 588 nm. We assign 39 transitions originating from the lowest rotational levels of the state, and accurately model the state’s structure with an effective Hamiltonian using best-fit parameters. Additionally, we perform Stark and Zeeman spectroscopy on the state and fit the molecule-frame dipole moment to Dand the effective electrong-factor to . Further, we use an empirical model to explain observed anomalous line intensities in terms of interference from spin–orbit and vibronic perturbations in the excited state. Our work is an essential step toward searches for BSM physics in YbOH and other linear polyatomic molecules.more » « less
-
Abstract Entanglement is an intrinsic property of quantum mechanics and is predicted to be exhibited in the particles produced at the Large Hadron Collider. A measurement of the extent of entanglement in top quark-antiquark ( ) events produced in proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is performed with the data recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2016, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.3 fb−1. The events are selected based on the presence of two leptons with opposite charges and high transverse momentum. An entanglement-sensitive observableDis derived from the top quark spin-dependent parts of the production density matrix and measured in the region of the production threshold. Values of are evidence of entanglement andDis observed (expected) to be ( ) at the parton level. With an observed significance of 5.1 standard deviations with respect to the non-entangled hypothesis, this provides observation of quantum mechanical entanglement within pairs in this phase space. This measurement provides a new probe of quantum mechanics at the highest energies ever produced.more » « less
-
We study regularity of solutions to on a relatively compact domain in a complex manifold of dimension , where is a form. Assume that there are either negative or positive Levi eigenvalues at each point of boundary . Under the necessary condition that a locally solution exists on the domain, we show the existence of the solutions on the closure of the domain that gain derivative when and is in the Hölder–Zygmund space with . For , the same regularity for the solutions is achieved when is either sufficiently smooth or of positive Levi eigenvalues everywhere on .more » « less
An official website of the United States government
