Nuclear Schiff moment of fluorine isotope $^{19}$F
Published: Jul 26, 2025
Last Updated: Jul 26, 2025
Authors:Kia Boon Ng, Stephan Foster, Lan Cheng, Petr Navratil, Stephan Malbrunot-Ettenauer
Abstract
Nuclear Schiff moments (NSMs) are sensitive probes for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, signaling violations of time-reversal and parity-inversion symmetries in atomic nuclei. In this Letter, we report the first-ever calculation of a NSM in a nuclear ab initio framework, employing the no-core shell model to study the fluorine isotope $^{19}$F. We further perform quantum-chemistry calculations to evaluate the sensitivity of the hafnium monofluoride cation, HfF$^+$, to the NSM of $^{19}$F. Combined with recent high-precision measurements of the molecular electric dipole moment of HfF$^+$, our results enable the first experimental bound on the NSM of $^{19}$F.