#  Laser-cooled YbOH molecules could aid the hunt for new physics 

 





May 04, 2020

 

 

 Physicists at Harvard University and Arizona State University in the US have succeeded in laser-cooling YbOH molecules – a crucial first step towards using these molecules to make precision measurements of the electron’s electric dipole moment (eEDM). Their work was augmented by a related effort, carried out by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Temple University, to enhance the brightness of a beam of cold YbOH. The results appear in [separate ](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/ab6eae)[papers](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/ab687b) in *New Journal of* *Physics*, which (like *Physics World*) is published by IOP Publishing.

 Read a description of the project’s goals and achievements in an interview with two members of the PolyEDM collaboration, Harvard PhD student Ben Augenbraun and Caltech PhD student Arian Jadbabaie, in Physics World: "[Laser-cooled YbOH molecules could aid the hunt for new physics](https://physicsworld.com/a/laser-cooled-yboh-molecules-could-aid-the-hunt-for-new-physics/)," 04 May 2020.