An improved limit on ${}^{171}\text{Yb}$ electric dipole moment

Searches for permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) probe new sources of CP violation beyond the Standard Model. The atomic EDM of ${}^{171}\text{Yb}$, which is sensitive to its nuclear Schiff moment, is a promising candidate, but previous measurements were limited by noise and systematic effects induced by the optical dipole trap (ODT) that holds the atoms. Here we report a substantially improved search enabled by a dual-ODT configuration with orthogonal polarizations, and spin measurements for precise alignment of static and optical fields. By suppressing the key parity-mixing systematic effect and vector light-shift noise, we achieve a limit of $\mathrm{\mid }d{(}^{171}\mathrm{Y}\mathrm{b})\mathrm{\mid }<7.5\times {10}^{-28}e\cdot \text{cm}$ (95% C.L.), which represents a 20-fold improvement over the previous work. We also present the first calculation of the nuclear structure factors of the Schiff moment of ${}^{171}\text{Yb}$. The experimental and theoretical advances combine to tighten constraints on CP-violating pion-nucleon couplings in a global analysis. Moreover, this work demonstrates a pathway toward future measurements in ${}^{225}\text{Ra}$, where nuclear deformation offers exceptional sensitivity to physics beyond the Standard Model.