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SYLC: Symposium Light and Chirality: From Fundamentals to Applications

SYLC 1: Light and Chirality: From Fundamentals to Applications

SYLC 1.4: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 4, 2026, 16:00–16:30, RW 1

Toward a low-energy test of the parity symmetry via precise mid-IR spectroscopy of cold chiral molecules — Agathe Bonifacio, Sahil Viel, Raphaël Hahn, Minh Nhut Ngo, Marylise Saffre, Yuhao Liu, Wenling Dong, Etienne Cantin, Olivier Lopez, Anne Amy-Klein, Mathieu Manceau, and •Benoît Darquié — LPL, CNRS-Uni Sorbonne Paris Nord, Villetaneuse, France

There is an increasing demand for precise molecular spectroscopy, in particular in the mid-IR, whether it be for modelling our atmosphere, interpreting astrophysical spectra or testing fundamental physics.

I will present our efforts towards building new-generation mid-IR spectrometers specifically designed for precision vibrational spectroscopy of complex species in the gas phase. This includes amongst other things producing gases of polyatomics cooled to a few kelvins in cryogenic buffer-gas cells, developing frequency stabilised mid-IR lasers calibrated to some of the world's best frequency standards and explore the opportunities offered by cutting-edge mid-IR photonics technologies. The proposed technologies are at the forefront of cold molecule research and frequency metrology and have allowed us to measure absolute frequencies of a variety of species of atmospheric, astrophysical or fundamental interest with record up to 12-digit accuracies.

This opens possibilities for using polyatomic molecules to improve tests of fundamental physics and precision measurements in general. I will in particular focus on our effort towards measuring the tiny energy difference between chiral enantiomers expected to result from electroweak interactions and to be a sensitive probe of dark matter.

Keywords: ultra-high-resolution mid-infrared spectroscopy; frequency metrology; quantum cascade lasers; cold molecules; parity violation