On the observability of parity and time reversal violating interactions by trapped ion spectroscopy

The feasibility to measure neutral weak current interactions by spectroscopy on trapped ions is investigated. The sensitivity of the proposed experiment is compared to the sensitivity of similar experiments using atomic gases or beams. It is shown that there is no advantage as far as that part of the interaction is concerned which is a vector in the nucleon current and an axial vector in the electron current. This is mainly due to the relatively low ion density. The circular polarization however depending upon the nuclear spin orientation appears to be proportional to the coherence time, which is three orders of magnitude longer than in ordinary atomic beam resonance experiments. It is pointed out that the same method can be used to measure possible nuclear electric dipole moments. (orig.)