We live in puzzling times: the unknown nature of dark energy and dark matter, and the dominance of matter over antimatter in the universe, point to deep problems in our picture of physics. The lack of clues despite exhaustive searches at high-energy particle colliders and direct dark matter detectors implies that new physics must be sought in new ways. Precision measurements using novel experimental platforms are one such way. The focus of our proposed measurements is nuclear T-violation, a low-energy observable that probes ultra-high-energy physics.
Our project will take a powerful new approach to nuclear T-violation experiments, combining enhancements from octupole-deformed nuclei, polarized atoms and highly-coherent solid-state systems. The proposal relies on well-studied system, but at the same time, pushes T-violation search experiments in a bold direction that is aimed at either discovering new physical phenomena in the next five years, or setting stringent bounds on the shape of theories to come.