Atomic parity violation measurements in the highly forbidden 6S 1/2 - 7S1/2 caesium transition. - III. Data acquisition and processing. Results and implications

Abstract

Résumé. 2014 Ce papier achève la présentation détaillée de notre expérience de Abstract. -This paper completes the detailed presentation of our PV experiment on the 6S1/2 -7S1/2 transition in Cs. A detailed description of the data acquisition and processing is given. The results of two independent measurements made on 0394F = 0 and 0394F =1 hfs components agree, providing an important crosscheck. After a complete reanalysis of systematics and calibration, the precision is slightly improved, leading to the weighted average Im Epv1/03B2 = -1.52 ± 0.18 mV/cm. Later results from an independent group agree quite well. With the semi-empirical value 03B2 = (26.8 ± 0.8) a30, our result yields Epv1 = (-0.79 ± 0.10) x 10-11 i |e|a0. Coupled with the atomic calculations, this implies that the weak nuclear charge of Cs is Qw = -68 ± 9. This value agrees with the standard electroweak theory and leads to a weak interaction angle sin2 03B8W = 0.21 ± 0.04. The complementarity of these measurements with high energy experiments is illustrated.

Precision measurement of parity nonconservation in cesium

“…This term arises from both a misalignment of the electric field, resulting in a component E y along the direction of the dye laser, and the presence of a stray electric field in the z direction E z . This type of systematic error was recognized previously by several groups [16,31].…”

“…A plethora of accurate measurements exist that can be used to test atomic theory, and diode laser technology allows manipulation of the cesium hyperfine states and magnetic sublevels. PNC was first measured in cesium by the Paris group with a fractional uncertainty of about 20% [14][15][16]. This was subsequently improved to about 12% by the Paris group [15,16] and then 2% by the Boulder group [2,17].…”

Measurement of Parity Nonconservation and an Anapole Moment in Cesium

“…The dc electric field in the interaction region is produced by applying a voltage between two parallel 5 cm by 9 cm conducting plates 0.98577 (25) cm apart (the numbers in parentheses are the error in the last digits). The plates are made of flat pieces of Pyrex glass coated with 100 nm Both field ~l a t e s were divided into five electrically separate segments by removing the molybdenum in thin parallel lines.…”

Low energy tests of the weak interaction

“…We combine the results (153), (154), and (155) assuming that the smaller systematic uncertainty between Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande is common to both, and that Soudan-2 is uncorrelated with the waterČherenkov results. The results, R µe = 0.614…”