Investigating the nuclear Schiff moment of $^{207}$Pb in ferroelectric PbTiO$_3$

TL;DR

This paper models the local electronic structure near the $^{207}$Pb nucleus in PbTiO$_3$ to interpret potential measurements of the nuclear Schiff moment, finding the energy shift to be smaller than previous estimates.

Contribution

It provides detailed Hartree-Fock calculations of the electronic environment around $^{207}$Pb in PbTiO$_3$, refining the expected energy shift related to the Schiff moment.

Findings

Energy shift due to Schiff moment is half of previous estimates.

Supports interpretation of future experimental measurements.

Enhances understanding of electronic structure in ferroelectric materials.

Abstract

A positive experimental measurement of the nuclear Schiff moment would have important implications for physics beyond the standard model. To aid in the interpretation of a proposed experiment to measure the nuclear Schiff moment of $^{207}$Pb in the ferroelectric PbTiO$_3$, three-dimensional Hartree-Fock calculations have been performed to model the local electronic structure in the vicinity of the Pb nucleus. The energy shift due to the Schiff moment is found to be a factor of 2 smaller in comparison to existing estimates.