Eur. Phys. J. A (2005) 25: 685-689
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjad/i2005-06-097-9

ENAM 2004

Weak interaction symmetries with atom traps

¹ TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, V6T 2A3, Vancouver, BC, Canada
² Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
³ Department of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
⁴ University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
⁵ School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
⁶ University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
⁷ Université Catholique de Louvain, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
⁸ KFKI RMKI, P.O. Box 49, 1525, Budapest, Hungary

^* e-mail: behr@triumf.ca

Received: 3 January 2005
Accepted: 10 April 2005
Published online: 27 May 2005

Abstract

Neutral atoms trapped with modern laser cooling techniques offer the promise of improving several broad classes of weak interaction experiments with radioactive isotopes. For nuclear β decay, demonstrated trap techniques include neutrino momentum measurements from beta-recoil coincidences, along with methods to produce highly polarized samples. These techniques enable experiments to search for non-Standard Model interactions, test whether parity symmetry is maximally violated, search for 2nd-class tensor and other tensor interactions, and search for new sources of time reversal violation. Ongoing efforts at TRIUMF, Berkeley, and Los Alamos will be highlighted. Trap experiments involving fundamental symmetries in atomic physics, such as time-reversal violating electric dipole moments and neutral current weak interactions, will be briefly mentioned.