Current Position: Staff Physicist
Current Institution: IonQ
Advisor: David DeMille
Degree Year: 2019
Dissertation Title: Order-of-magnitude-tighter bound on the electron electric dipole moment
Dissertation Abstract: The electron’s electric dipole moment (eEDM) is a time-reversal- (T-) violating interaction that is generically predicted to have a magnitude near or above the bounds of current experimental sensitivity in extensions to the Standard Model. We have completed an improved measurement of the electron’s electric dipole moment with an order-of-magnitude greater sensitivity than the previous best measurement. The result is consistent with no interaction, |de|<1.1*10^-29 e cm. This upper bound is a factor of 8.6 smaller than the previous bound and correspondingly probes for new particles with masses at ~3-30 TeV, which is 3 times higher than previously explored in eEDM experiments. In this work, we describe the second-generation ACME experiment, models for and suppression of systematic errors, sources of phase noise, and preliminary work toward a third generation of the ACME apparatus.
Information updated 03/30/2026