Clear evidence of charge conjugation and parity violation in K atoms from atomic permanent electric dipole moment experiments

TL;DR

This paper presents experimental evidence of CP violation in potassium atoms through measurements of their electric dipole moments, challenging traditional views on atomic symmetry and polarity.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental detection of a large permanent EDM in neutral K atoms, indicating CP violation at the atomic level.

Findings

Potassium atoms exhibit a temperature-dependent susceptibility consistent with polar molecules.

Nearly all K atoms align with an external electric field at high voltages, indicating a large EDM.

The ground state neutral K atom is polar with an EDM exceeding 2.3×10⁻⁹ e·cm.

Abstract

Quantum mechanics thinks that atoms do not have permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) because of their spherical symmetry. Therefore, there is no polar atom in nature except for polar molecules. The electric susceptibility Xe caused by the orientation of polar substances is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature T while the induced susceptibility of atoms is temperature independent. This difference in temperature dependence offers a means of separating the polar and non-polar substances experimentally. Using special capacitor our experiments discovered that the relationship between Xe of Potassium atom and T is just Xe=B/T, where the slope B is approximately 283(K) as polar molecules, but appears to be disordered using the traditional capacitor. Its capacitance C at different voltage V was measured. The C-V curve shows that the saturation polarization of K vapor has be observed when E more than 105V/m and nearly all K atoms (over 98.9 per cent) are lined up with the field! The ground state neutral K atom is polar atom with a large EDM: dK more than 2.3*10-9e.cm.The results gave clear evidence for CP (charge conjugation and parity) violation in K atoms. If K atom has a large EDM, why the linear Stark effect has not been observed? The article discussed the question thoroughly. Our results are easy to be repeated because the details of the experiment are described in the article.