Nuclear Schiff moment in nuclei with soft octupole and quadrupole vibrations

Abstract

Nuclear forces violating parity and time reversal invariance (${\cal P},{\cal T}$-odd) produce ${\cal P},{\cal T}$-odd nuclear moments, for example, the nuclear Schiff moment. In turn, this moment can induce the electric dipole moment in the atom. The nuclear Schiff moment is predicted to be enhanced in nuclei with static quadrupole and octupole deformation. The analogous suggestion of the enhanced contribution to the Schiff moment from the soft collective quadrupole and octupole vibrations in spherical nuclei is tested in this article in the framework of the quasiparticle random phase approximation with separable quadrupole and octupole forces applied to the odd $^{217-221}$Ra and $^{217-221}$Rn isotopes. We confirm the existence of the enhancement effect due to the soft modes. However, in the standard approximation the enhancement is strongly reduced by a small weight of the corresponding "particle + phonon" component in a complicated wave function of a soft nucleus. The perspectives of a better description of the structure of heavy soft nuclei are discussed.