The electric dipole moment of the electron

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