Molecules containing short-lived, radioactive nuclei are uniquely positioned to enable a wide range of scientific discoveries in the areas of fundamental symmetries, astrophysics, nuclear structure, and chemistry. Recent advances in the ability to create, cool, and control complex molecules down to the quantum level, along with recent and upcoming advances in radioactive species production at several facilities around the world, create a compelling opportunity to coordinate and combine these efforts to bring precision measurement and control to molecules containing extreme nuclei. In this manuscript, we review the scientific case for studying radioactive molecules, discuss recent atomic, molecular, nuclear, astrophysical, and chemical advances which provide the foundation for their study, describe the facilities where these species are and will be produced, and provide an outlook for the future of this nascent field.
Opportunities for Fundamental Physics Research with Radioactive Molecules
Abstract
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Acknowledgement
We thank John Behr, Vincenzo Cirigliano, and Jordy de Vries for helpful discussions.
This material is based upon work supported by: the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics under award numbers DESC0013365 (Michigan State University), DE-FG02-97ER41019 (University of North Carolina), DE-SC0021179, DE-SC0021176 (MIT), DE-SC0022034 (University of California, Santa Barbara); National Science Foundation award numbers PHY2146555 (University of California, Santa Barbara), PHY-1847550 (Caltech), PHY2209185 (Michigan State University), PHY-2012068 (University of Delaware); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) award numbers 328961117 – SFB 1319 ELCH (University of Kassel), 423116110, 390831469: EXC 2118 PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence (Johannes Gutenberg University); Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) award numbers ST/P004423/1, ST/V001116/1, ST/X00502X/1 (University of Manchester), ST/P003885/1, ST/V001035/1; Polish National Science Centre Contract No. 2018/31/B/ST2/02220; Academy of Finland Project No. 339245 (University of Jyväskylä); European’s Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme number 861198 project ‘LISA’, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (Johannes Gutenberg University); NIST Precision Measurement Grant numbers 60NANB18D253 (Caltech) and 60NANB21D185 (University of California, Santa Barbara); Feodor Lynen Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (MIT); Heising-Simons Foundation award 2022-3361 (Caltech); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation award GBMF7947 (Caltech); Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award G-2019- 12502 (Caltech); W. M. Keck Foundation (University of California, Santa Barbara); ONR Grant No. N00014-20-1-2513 (University of Delaware); NSERC Grant SAPIN2022-00019 (TRIUMF); FWO International Research Infrastructure (KU Leuven); Excellence of Science (EOS) project 40007501 (KU Leuven); KU Leuven project C14/22/104; Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant; Russian Science Foundation Grant No. 19-72-10019-P, https://rscf.ru/en/project/22-72-41010/ (Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute); Foundation for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics “BASIS” Research Project No. 21-1-2-47-1 (Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute); National Natural Science Foundation of China No. 12027809.
Computing support is acknowledged from: an INCITE Award on the Summit supercomputer of the OLCF at ORNL; CSC-IT Center for Science Ltd., Finland; The Viking Cluster, which is a high performance compute facility provided by the University of York; University of York High Performance Computing service, Viking and the Research Computing team.
TRIUMF receives federal funding via a contribution agreement with the National Research Council of Canada.
Support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Fundamental Physics Innovation Awards (No GBMF6210, APS GBMF-008-2020) is acknowledged for meetings and workshops which inspired this manuscript.
Additional details
- ISSN
- 1361-6633
- DOI
- 10.1088/1361-6633/ad1e39
- United States Department of Energy
- DE-SC0013365
- United States Department of Energy
- DE-FG02-97ER41019
- United States Department of Energy
- DE-SC0021179
- United States Department of Energy
- DE-SC0021176
- United States Department of Energy
- DE-SC0022034
- National Science Foundation
- PHY-2146555
- National Science Foundation
- PHY-1847550
- National Science Foundation
- PHY-2209185
- National Science Foundation
- PHY-2012068
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- 328961117 – SFB 1319
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- 423116110
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- 390831469
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- EXC 2118 PRISMA+
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- ST/P004423/1
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- ST/V001116/1
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- ST/X00502X/1
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- ST/P003885/1
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- ST/V001035/1
- National Science Center
- 2018/31/B/ST2/02220
- Research Council of Finland
- 339245
- European Research Council
- 861198
- European Research Council
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship
- National Institute of Standards and Technology
- 60NANB18D253
- National Institute of Standards and Technology
- 60NANB21D185
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
- Feodor Lynen Fellowship
- Heising-Simons Foundation
- 2022-3361
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- GBMF7947
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- G-2019-12502
- W. M. Keck Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- N00014-20-1-2513
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- SAPIN-2022-00019
- Research Foundation - Flanders
- European Research Council
- 40007501
- KU Leuven
- C14/22/104
- Leverhulme Trust
- Russian Science Foundation
- 19-72-10019-P
- Theoretical Physics and Mathematics Advancement Foundation "BASIS"
- 21-1-2-47-1
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- 12027809
- National Research Council Canada
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- GBMF6210
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- GBMF-008-2020
- Caltech groups
- Institute for Quantum Information and Matter