Role of collisions in the search for an electron electric-dipole moment

Abstract
We study the role of atomic collisions in future measurements of an intrinsic electric-dipole moment (EDM) of the electron using laser-cooled Cs atoms in an optical trap or in an atomic fountain. We find that the shift in frequency and the line broadening caused by collisions may eventually limit the achievable sensitivity of these EDM experiments. We present the results of a coupled-channel calculation of these quantities and discuss the symmetry aspects and magnetic-field dependences.