Date Available

4-16-2018

Year of Publication

2018

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Physics and Astronomy

Advisor

Dr. Brad Plaster

Abstract

Charge-Conjugation (C) and Charge-Conjugation-Parity (CP) Violation is one of the three Sakharov conditions to explain via baryogenesis the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe (BAU). The Standard Model of particle physics (SM) contains sources of CP violation, but cannot explain the BAU. This motivates searches for new physics beyond the standard model (BSM) which address the Sakharov criteria, including high-precision searches for new sources of CPV in systems for which the SM contribution is small, but larger effects may be present in BSM theories. A promising example is the search for the electric dipole moment of the neutron (nEDM), which is a novel system to observe CPV due to the initial and final state being identical. A non-zero measurement necessarily requires violation of P and T discrete symmetries; invoking CPT invariance requires that CP is violated. There are BSM theories which predict a magnitude for the nEDM larger than SM predictions, so that such studies are beneficial at setting constraints on new physics. The current experimental limit of dn < 3.0 x 10-26 e cm at 90% CL as set by the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) [1] was largely limited by systematic effects related to the magnetic field. The research presented here supported technical progress toward a new measurement of the nEDM, with the goal of improving the result by an order of magnitude. A novel approach to the problem of limiting systematics is proposed, studied in Monte Carlo simulations, and an optimized prototype was constructed for use in a magnetic resonance experiment.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2018.094

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