Electron Dipole Moment of Elementary Particle: An Overview on theoretical and experimental aspects

by Antonio Masiero (DFA UniPD), Prof. Giovanni Carugno (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Tuesday 28 Oct 2025, 15:30 → 17:30 Europe/Rome

1/1-1 - Aula "A. Rostagni" (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Edificio Marzolo)

The seminar will be centered on the electric dipole moments (EDMs) of elementary particle their theoretical and experimental connections to fundamental physics beyond the Standard Model.
Despite its many successes, the Standard Model of particle physics is thought to be incomplete, because it leaves unanswered several major questions. One of these is the origin of the observed asymmetry between the amount of matter and antimatter in the visible universe. While we cannot currently explain what caused the asymmetry, we know that it requires the presence of new interactions violating several fundamental symmetries. Electric dipole moments of elementary particles are one direct signature of such symmetry violation. They can be tested via precision measurements using heavy polar molecules. In this seminar, we will give a theoretical introduction to the actual status of EDM both in Leptonic and Hadronic sectors before introducing the “Padova” approach to the electron and proton EDM measurements. We will present our apparatus that uses molecules cooled at very low temperatures to make extremely precise measurements. With very careful measurements, such table-top experiments will enable us to explore new physics up to PeV energy scale.
We are searching for an electron EDM by performing a precision measurement of electron spin precession signals from a superposition prepared state of the BaF molecules.
This specifically chosen molecule provides one of the highest known effective intermolecular electric fields of around 10 GV/cm and therefore serves as a perfect candidate for an eEDM search. We will discuss the current status of the experiment, some improvements that can be incorporated in the near future and how using the above method we were able to reject a number of systematic errors, which are the usual limitation in precision experiments of this type. Finally a possible measurement of the proton EDM within our experimental system will be shown.