Eur. Phys. J. A 24, s2.175-s2.178 (2005)
DOI: 10.1140/epjad/s2005-04-044-8

Parity violation in nuclear systems

Efstathios Stiliaris

Physics Department, University of Athens, GR-15771 Athens, Greece and, Institute of Accelerating Systems & Applications (IASA), P.O. Box 17214, GR-10024 Athens, Greece

(Received 15 December 2004 / Published online 08 February 2005)

Abstract

Experimental measurements of Parity Non-Conserving (PNC) asymmetries in simple nuclear systems represent always a key-tool for the study of the weak nucleon-nucleon interaction and consequently an accurate experimental method for the determination of the meson-nucleon weak coupling constants of the underlying theory. Recent theoretical analysis on the deuteron photodisintegration with polarized photons, a few MeV above threshold, have drastically improved previous theoretical estimates. Based on that, the feasibility of measuring the photon asymmetry A_γ in the reaction with the 10-MeV CW Linac at the Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications (IASA) is considered here. A brief review on previous experimental results obtained in the deuteron photodisintegration and in the thermal-neutron radiative capture on protons (inverse reaction) is given. The most important parameters in the design of a nuclear parity experiment are presented and the crucial factors, such as beam intensity, beam polarization and neutron detection techniques with the required high accuracy are outlined.

PACS: 24.80.+y Nuclear tests of fundamental interactions and symmetries - 25.20.-x Photonuclear reactions

© Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2005