Atomic structure calculations for constraining new electron-electron forces

Cameron J. West; Benjamin M. Roberts

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arXiv · 2608.26532

Atomic structure calculations for constraining new electron-electron forces

Cameron J. West·Benjamin M. Roberts

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Abstract

We present a general approach for calculating new electron-electron interactions with atomic structure theory, include dominant many-body effects, and extract bounds for parity-odd cases. The procedure is valid for any mediator mass and improves previous calculations by including many-body corrections to the new interaction through the time-dependent Hartree-Fock method. Bounds on coupling strengths are then extracted for scalar-pseudoscalar and vector-axial vector interactions by comparison with experimental atomic electric dipole moments and parity non-conserving (PNC) transitions respectively. In the latter case, our calculations rule out any coupling-mass ratio |g^e_V g^e_A|/m_X^2 greater than 10^-11 MeV^-2 above m_X ~ 10 MeV, covering a previously unconstrained mass region. We also report an updated calculation of the regular (Standard Model) electron-electron Z^0 exchange contribution to the 6s-7s PNC transition amplitude E_PNC in cesium.

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Cameron J. West, Benjamin M. Roberts. 2026-08-27. Atomic structure calculations for constraining new electron-electron forces. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.26532

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