The quest for an electric dipole moment of the neutron

Abstract

Until this day no electric dipole moment of the neutron (nEDM) has been observed. Why it is so vanishing small, escaping detection in the last 50 years, is not easy to explain. In general it is considered as the most sensitive probe for the violation of the combined symmetry of charge and parity (CP). A discovery could shed light on the poorly understood matter/anti-matter asymmetry of the universe. As nucleon it might one day help to distinguish different sources of CP-violation in combination with measurements of the electron and diamagnetic EDMs. This proceedings articles presents an overview of the most important concepts in searches for an nEDM and presents a brief overview of the world wide efforts.