Electric dipole moment searches using the isotope 129-xenon

Two new complementary experiments searching for a permanent electric dipole moment (EDM) of 129-xenon are presented. Besides demonstration of a sensitivity improvement by employing established methods and a highly sensitive SQUID detection system the progress towards a novel measurement approach is discussed. The new method introduces time-varying electric fields and a liquid hyper-polarized xenon sample with a potential improvement in sensitivity of three orders of magnitude. The search for EDMs is motivated by their symmetry-breaking nature. A non-zero EDM provides a new source of CP violation to solve the mystery of the huge excess of matter over anti-matter in our Universe.