Isotopic variation of parity violation in atomic ytterbium: Description of the measurement method and analysis of systematic effects

Abstract

We present a detailed description of experimental studies of the parity violation effect in an isotopic chain of atomic ytterbium (Yb), whose results were reported in a recent paper [Antypas et al., Nat. Phys. 15, 120 (2019)]. We discuss the principle of these measurements, made on the Yb 6s(2) S-1(0) -> 5d6s D-3(1) optical transition at 408 nm, describe the experimental apparatus, and give a detailed account of our studies of systematic effects in the experiment. Our results offer a direct observation of the isotopic variation in the atomic parity violation effect, a variation which is in agreement with the prediction of the standard model. These measurements are used to constrain electron-proton and electron-neutron interactions, mediated by a light Z' boson.

Publisher

American Physical Society

Publication Date

7-3-2019

Publication Title

Physical Review A

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.100.012503

Keywords

Nonconserving optical-rotation, Weak neutral currents, Precision-measurement, Transitions, 6S(2)

Language

English

Format

text

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