The electric dipole moment of the electron

Recent experimental progress in the search for atomic electric dipole moments (EDMs) dA of cesium and thallium leads in particular to a substantially increased sensitivity to a possible electron EDM dₑ compared with existing upper bounds. Further considerable improvement in the measurement of dTl is likely. After a brief synopsis of the theory of atomic EDMs, the authors discuss---in view of the expected experimental sensitivity to dₑ---the predictions for the electron EDM in various models of CP violation.