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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 103 » Issue 7
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 071601 (2009) [4 pages]

Observation of a Large Atomic Parity Violation Effect in Ytterbium

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K. Tsigutkin1,*, D. Dounas-Frazer1, A. Family1, J. E. Stalnaker1,†, V. V. Yashchuk2, and D. Budker1,3
1Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA
2Advanced Light Source Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley California 94720, USA
3Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Received 19 June 2009; published 10 August 2009

See accompanying Physics Viewpoint

Atomic parity violation has been observed in the 6s2 1S0→5d6s 3D1 408-nm forbidden transition of ytterbium. The parity-violating amplitude is found to be 2 orders of magnitude larger than in cesium, where the most precise experiments to date have been performed. This is in accordance with theoretical predictions and constitutes the largest atomic parity-violating amplitude yet observed. This also opens the way to future measurements of neutron distributions and anapole moments by comparing parity-violating amplitudes for various isotopes and hyperfine components of the transition.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.071601
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.071601
PACS:
11.30.Er, 32.90.+a

*tsigutkin@berkeley.edu

†Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074, USA.

 
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