LABORATORI NAZIONALI DI LEGNARO
Francium (Fr) is the heaviest alkali atom in the periodic table possessing 87 electrons. Because of its large atomic number, Fr is considered for the measurement of electric dipole moment (EDM) due to parity and time reversal symmetries and parity nonconservation (PNC) effect in the 7s --> 8s transition due to the neutral weak interaction and the nuclear anapole moment. However, the PNC effects are larger in the 7s --> 6d_{3/2,5/2} transitions in Fr. In this work, we shall demonstrate advantages of considering the 7s --> 6d transitions for the PNC measurements. Moreover, roles of the electron correlation effects for accurate determination of the atomic wave functions will be discussed by presenting recent theoretical results on the hyperfine structure constants of the 210, 211 and 212 Fr isotopes that are necessary for testing validity of the PNC calculations.

DATA: 03-09-2015