A seminar presenting recent ISOLDE-driven advances in high-resolution laser spectroscopy of radioactive ions and molecules for nuclear-structure and symmetry-violation studies.
This is a back-to-back seminar presented by researchers highlighting progress in precision spectroscopy of rare isotopes and radioactive molecules at the collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at ISOLDE-CERN, with applications to nuclear moments, charge radii, electron-electron correlation effects, and CP-violation–sensitive systems.
13:00 — Dr. Jessica Warbinek (CERN/KU Leuven)
Abstract: In the last decade, the collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy (CRIS) technique has proven to be a powerful tool for investigating atomic and nuclear properties of exotic nuclei across the nuclear chart. CRIS stands out through its combination of conventional collinear laser spectroscopy with resonance ionization, enabling the extraction of high-resolution data on nuclear moments, mean-square charge radii, and the unambiguous determination of nuclear spins, even for isotopes produced at rates as low as a few tens of ions per second. More recently, the CRIS experiment has also pioneered studies on short-lived radioactive molecules, in particular RaF, opening a new path for future beyond standard-model physics searches at low energies.
With the latest developments on the CRIS experiment at ISOLDE, CERN, the versatility of the technique has been further enhanced. Recent highlight cases will be presented, from challenging nuclear and atomic structure studies, to investigations of negative ions, including first studies on Po- and molecular anions such as RaF-. The results and the methodological developments instrumental in achieving them will be discussed.
14:00 — Dr. Michalis Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis (JILA, CU Boulder/CERN)
Abstract: Precision experiments using heavy and polar diatomic molecules are pursued throughout the world with the aim to pin down the level of CP violation in the universe. As the sensitivity to CP-odd nuclear, hadronic, and leptonic moments in molecule-based searches scales with the atomic number of the molecule's heavy nucleus, compounds of heavy radioactive atoms are appealing systems. However, producing and studying such molecules is challenging, and often requires specialized radioactive ion beam facilities. Despite technical challenges, a lot of progress has been made in experiments with radioactive molecules, starting from CERN-ISOLDE and expanding to many laboratories around the world. In this talk, an overview of precision searches with polar molecules for electric dipole moment searches will be given, followed by the motivation of extending such experiments to radioactive molecules, and the history and status of their experimental study at CERN-ISOLDE.