Speaker
Description
Some of the most important open questions in physics, such as why the Universe contains more matter than antimatter and whether certain fundamental symmetries of nature are broken, motivate searches for new particles and forces beyond the Standard Model of particle physis. Many of these symmetry violating effects are expected to be extremely small, meaning that discovering them depends on building measurement tools with extraordinary sensitivity. In the RaX collaboration, we are developing experiments that use radioactive molecules, such as RaF and RaOH, as quantum sensors for symmetry violation, where both the molecule and the nucleus act as natural amplifiers. The heavy, pear-shaped radium nucleus provides ~1000x enhancement of nuclear symmetry violation, and the polar molecular structure provides large internal electric fields that give another ~1000x enhancement, leading to sensitivities more than a million times greater than those achieved in traditional atomic systems. By combining these intrinsic amplification mechanisms with laser cooling and precise quantum control, we can slow and manipulate these molecules using lasers to perform high-precision measurements in a clean, well-controlled quantum system. In this talk, I will discuss our progress toward producing cold beams of $^{226}$RaX (X = F, OH). and establishing the level of control required for quantum sensing. I will also briefly outline future prospects for extending these techniques to $^{225}$RaX, establishing radioactive molecules as a new platform for probing fundamental physics at energy scales beyond the reach of current particle accelerators.