Nuclear-spin dependent parity violation in optically trapped polyatomic molecules

Improved nuclear spin-dependent parity violation measurements will enable experimental determination of poorly known electroweak coupling parameters. Here, we investigate the suitability of optically trapped linear polyatomic molecules as probes of nuclear spin-dependent parity violation. The presence of closely spaced, opposite-parity ℓ -doublets is a general feature of such molecules, allowing parity-violation-sensitive pairs of levels to be brought to degeneracy in magnetic fields typically 100 times smaller than in diatomics. Assuming laser cooling and trapping of polyatomics at the current state-of-the-art for diatomics, we expect to measure nuclear spin-dependent parity-violating matrix elements iW with 70 times better sensitivity than the current best measurements. Our scheme should allow for 10% measurements of iW in nuclei as light as Be or as heavy as Yb, with averaging times on the order of 10 days and 1 s, respectively. Experimental verification of the Standard Model suffers from large errors when addressing spin-dependent Boson exchange between electrons and quarks. Here, optically trapped linear polyatomic molecules are proposed as probes of nuclear spin-dependent parity violation, exhibiting sensitivity which significantly exceeds the current state-of-the-art.