Experimental tests of fundamental symmetries using nuclei and other
particles subject to the strong nuclear force have led to the discovery of
parity (
P
) violation, the discovery
of charge-parity (
CP
) violation, and
the prediction of a hypothetical particle called the axion, which is currently
a leading dark matter candidate. It is believed that additional sources of
CP
-violation may be needed to explain
the apparent scarcity of antimatter in the universe. A particularly sensitive
and unambiguous signature of both time-reversal- and
CP
-violation would be the existence of an electric dipole moment
(EDM). The next generation of EDM searches in a variety of complimentary
systems will have unprecedented sensitivity to physics beyond the Standard
Model. I will describe two new searches using different nuclei and laser
techniques. The first uses laser-polarized xenon and helium gases in the
world’s most magnetically quiet large scale environment located in Munich,
Germany. The second uses laser-trapped & -cooled radium atoms in an
experiment located at Argonne National Lab. Radium is a particularly attractive
choice because its pear-shaped nucleus amplifies the observable effect of
CP
-violation by several orders of
magnitude.