Using quantum-controlled molecules to probe for new CP-violating physics at energy scales approaching 1 PeV

Contrary to long-held and well-motivated expectations, no new physics has appeared at the TeV energy scale despite powerful searches at the Large Hadron Collider and large dark matter detectors. However, the cosmological observation of the huge asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the universe shows that some new interactions that violate CP symmetry must appear at some higher energy scale. This talk will describe room-scale experiments that use methods of quantum metrology to search for such new interactions. In particular, these experiments aim to detect an electric dipole moment (EDM) along the spin of some quantized particle, because such an EDM violates CP symmetry. EDMs would appear due to virtual exchange of new, as-yet undiscovered particles; heavier particles lead to smaller EDMs. Prior experiments searching for the EDM of the electron have reached a sensitivity that would have revealed the existence of such new particles with masses of ~30 TeV, in some theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. This already far exceeds the direct reach of the Large Hadron Collider, and even of proposed next-generation colliders. This talk will describe the near-term prospects for significant improvements in sensitivity to the electron EDM, and somewhat longer-term prospects for dramatic improvements in the search for Schiff moments (a charge distribution similar to an EDM) of atomic nuclei. Both types of experiments are projecting sensitivity sufficient to probe energy scales in excess of ~100 TeV, and both show potential for further improvements that could probe up to the 1000 TeV (i.e. PeV) scale. Hence, quantum-enabled EDM measurements have emerged as a new vanguard in the world of particle physics.