Nuclear physics searches for strong CP violation

Research Project, 2026 – 2030

Searches for new particles and broken fundamental symmetries are profound quests in physics, with progress potentially explaining the nature of dark matter and the matter-antimatter imbalance in our universe. A new generation of searches are focusing on the low-energy regime, using high-precision measurements of nuclear observables to detect very weak signals of new physics.The physics interpretation of these searches relies on a tower of effective field theories. Experimental efforts must therefore be paralleled by advances in theoretical modeling to enhance the overall sensitivity and provide links with physics at higher energy scales. Nuclear theory is key for this ambition. Unfortunately, a systematic approach for describing strongly-interacting nuclear matter at low energies with quantified uncertainties remains challenging.This project introduces an innovative nuclear-physics approach, leveraging breakthroughs in chiral effective field theory and ab initio many-body methods.Linking heavy and deformed nuclei to fundamental interactions, this research will offer unprecedented nuclear-physics input for new physics searches. A specific aim is to provide first ab initio predictions, with rigorous error bars, for the nuclear Schiff moment of octupole-deformed radium isotopes. This is a critical input for newly revived efforts to discover charge- parity violation in the strong, hadronic sector via the observation of a permanent electric dipole moment in an atom or molecule.