Enhanced nuclear Schiff moment and time reversal violation in 229Th-containing molecules

Abstract

Octupole deformation results in a strongly enhanced collective Schiff moment in 229Th nucleus. An additional enhancement of time reversal (T) and parity (P) violating effects (such as T,P-violating electric dipole moments) appears in the ground 1Sigma state and in the metastable 3Delta_1 state of diatomic molecule 229ThO. Similar enhancements exist in molecular ions 229ThOH+, 229ThF+ and 225,223RaOH+. Corresponding experiments may be used to test CP-violation theories predicting T,P-violating nuclear forces and to search for axions.