Schiff Screening of Relativistic Nucleon Electric-Dipole Moments by Electrons

Abstract

We show, at leading-order in the multipole expansion of the electron-nucleus interaction, that nucleon electric-dipole moments are completely shielded by electrons so that they contribute nothing to atomic electric-dipole moments, even when relativity in the nucleus is taken into account. It is well known that relativistic electron motion, by contrast, leads to dipole moments that are not screened; we discuss the reasons for the difference.

Comments: 4 pages, typeset by REVTeX, submitted to PRC