Nuclear Schiff moment of fluorine isotope ${}^{19}$F

Abstract

Nuclear Schiff moments (NSMs) are sensitive probes for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, signaling violations of time-reversal and parity-inversion symmetries in atomic nuclei. In this Letter, we report the first-ever calculation of a NSM in a nuclear ab initio framework, employing the no-core shell model to study the fluorine isotope ${}^{19}$F. We further perform quantum-chemistry calculations to evaluate the sensitivity of the hafnium monofluoride cation, HfF${}^{+}$, to the NSM of ${}^{19}$F. Combined with recent high-precision measurements of the molecular electric dipole moment of HfF${}^{+}$, our results enable the first experimental bound on the NSM of ${}^{19}$F. Although the resulting bounds on the pion-nucleon-nucleon ($\ddot{I}€$NN) coupling constants are not yet the most stringent, this work establishes the foundation for constraining $\ddot{I}€$NN interactions using nuclear ab initio methods.