Radium ions and radioactive molecules for probing hadronic CP violation physics
Charge conjugation parity (CP) symmetry violation is linked to important physics questions such as the matter-antimatter asymmetry and the Strong CP Problem. Tabletop precision measurements using heavy atoms and molecules can set stringent bounds on the new physics that attempt to explain these problems, and these measurements are complementary to direct searches of new particles using colliders. Radium, the heaviest alkaline earth element, is one of the most sensitive probes to hadronic CP violation due to its heavy and octupoled-deformed nucleus. Radium-containing molecules further amplifies the CP violation sensitivity by placing the radium nucleus in a large effective electric field produced by the polar molecule so that a two-week measurement with a single radium-containing molecule could set a new bound on the hadronic CP violation. In this talk, I will present on laser cooling and spectroscopy of radium ions, production and detection of radium-containing molecular ions that are sensitive to hadronic CP violation, and our ongoing work towards precision measurements with these radioactive molecules.