Isotope Shifts of Radium Monofluoride Molecules

TL;DR

This study measures isotope shifts in radium monofluoride molecules, revealing high sensitivity to nuclear size effects and supporting quantum chemical models, with implications for nuclear and fundamental symmetry research.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed experimental measurements of isotope shifts in RaF and confirms theoretical predictions, advancing understanding of nuclear effects in molecules.

Findings

High sensitivity of RaF isotope shifts to nuclear size effects

Excellent agreement between experimental data and ab initio calculations

Potential applications in nuclear structure and symmetry studies

Abstract

Isotope shifts of $^{223-226,228}$Ra$^{19}$F were measured for different vibrational levels in the electronic transition $A^{2}{}{\Pi}_{1/2}\leftarrow X^{2}{}{\Sigma}^{+}$. The observed isotope shifts demonstrate the particularly high sensitivity of radium monofluoride to nuclear size effects, offering a stringent test of models describing the electronic density within the radium nucleus. Ab initio quantum chemical calculations are in excellent agreement with experimental observations. These results highlight some of the unique opportunities that short-lived molecules could offer in nuclear structure and in fundamental symmetry studies.