Probing the smallest of length scales: A hunt for the electric dipole moment of the electron.

Presented by Neil Shafer-Ray, University of Oklahoma

In the early 1950's Purcell and Ramsey hypothesized that the electron might have an CP-violating electric dipole moment proportional to its spin.  This hypothesis set in motion a hunt for the electron's electric dipole moment (e-EDM) that is still ongoing.  The value of such an e-EDM divided by the electric charge gives the scale at which electric field lines no longer emanate radially from an electron.   By this metric the current limit on the ratio of the size of a proton to the size of an electron corresponds to the ratio of the size of a baseball to the size of a proton.  Heavy paramagnetic molecules give us the opportunity to probe still smaller scales and could at both differentiate between Supersymmetry and the Standard Model and explain why we are made of matter instead of antimatter. In this talk I introduce the how and why of a hunt for the e-EDM that exploits unique properties of the 207Pb19F molecule.