WE-Heraeus-Seminar — Parity Violation in Molecules

Fundamental symmetry breaking is important to understanding the formation of our universe including baryogenesis and the homochirality of living organisms. It plays an important role in finding a more complete theory than the Standard Model of particle physics. In recent years, molecules have become a leading platform to search for such symmetry breakings through precision metrology as they exhibit enhanced sensitivity and in particular, their many degrees of freedom can be leveraged to isolate violations of fundamental symmetries from the background. However, in recent years, the molecular precision spectroscopy community has become focused on simultaneous parity and time reversal symmetry violation, overlooking the equal importance of time-reversal symmetry even, parity violating effects. For example, despite its prediction in the 1960s, the parity violating energy difference between mirror-images of chiral molecules is yet to be observed, which is crucial for our understanding of molecular chirality. Only recently several individual works rediscovered the unique opportunities of molecular parity violation, indicating even its undiscovered potential in revealing new physics. Moreover, recent advancements in molecular quantum control and molecular theory may bring the detection of molecular parity violation now in reach for the first time. This workshop will use the momentum of these recent advances to refocus the attention on molecular parity violation experiments and foster collaboration in the field.