Electric dipole moments of superheavy elements - A case study on copernicium

Abstract

The multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock (MCDHF) method was employed to calculate atomic electric dipole moments (EDM) of the superheavy element copernicium (Cn, $Z=112$). The EDM enhancement factors of Cn, here calculated for the first time, are about one order of magnitude larger than those of Hg. The exponential dependence of enhancement factors on atomic number $Z$ along group 12 of the periodic table was derived from the EDMs of the entire homolog series, ${}_{30}^{69}$Zn, ${}_{48}^{111}$Cd, ${}_{80}^{199}$Hg, ${}_{112}^{285}$Cn, and ${}_{162}^{482}$Uhb. These results show that superheavy elements with sufficiently large half-lives are good candidates for EDM searches.

Comments: 10 pages, 3 figures