Stark shift and parity non-conservation for near-degenerate states of xenon

Abstract

We identify a pair of near-degenerate states of opposite parity in atomic Xe, the $5p^{5}10s{}^2[3/2{]}_2^o$ at $\mathrm{E}=94759.927$ cm${}^{-1}$ and $5p^{5}6f{}^2[5/2{]}_2$ at $\mathrm{E}=94759.935$ cm${}^{-1}$, for which parity- and time-odd effects are expected to be enhanced by the small energy separation. We present theoretical calculations which indicate narrow widths for both states and we report a calculated value for the weak matrix element, arising from configuration mixing, of $|W|=2.1$ Hz for ${}^{132}$Xe. In addition, we measured the Stark effect of the $5p^{5}6f$ ${}^2[5/2{]}_2$ and $5p^{5}6f{}^2[3/2{]}_2$ ($\mathrm{E}=94737.121{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}$) states. The Stark-shift of the $6f$ states is observed to be negative, revealing the presence of nearby $6g$ states at higher energies, which have not been observed before. The Stark-shift measurements imply an upper limit on the weak matrix element of $|W|<5$ Hz for the near-degenerate states ($10s{}^2[3/2{]}_2^o$ and $6f{}^2[5/2{]}_2$), which is in agreement with the presented calculations.

arXiv comment11 pages, 6 figures

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