Measurement of Parity Nonconservation in Atomic Bismuth

Abstract

Parity-nonconserving optical rotation has been observed and measured on the 8757-A magnetic-dipole absorption line in atomic bismuth vapor. The result, R = Im(E i /M i ) = (-10.4± 1.7) x 10" 8 , is of the approximate size calculated with use of the Weinberg-Salam theory of the weak neutral-current interaction with sin 2 0 w = 0.23.

Photon-photon polarization correlations as a tool for studying parity nonconservation in heliumlike uranium

“…In contrast to nuclear and high-energy physics, fewer experiments have been carried out in atomic physics to measure the properties of weak interaction. In fact, the conflicting results of the early Bismuth experiments in the 1970s [10][11][12][13] spread the belief that nothing fundamentally useful could ever have been extracted from atomic physics experiments. Nonetheless, renewed interest on the subject arose in the late 1980s and 1990s and led to the successful measurements of the weak charge Q w and related parameters in atomic cesium [14][15][16][17][18][19], thallium [20], lead [21] and yttrium [22].…”

Optical Experiments and Weak Interactions

“…In one class of experiments (11)(12)(13)(14)(15), parity violation was evidenced by a difference between the refractive indices for right and left circular polarization in the vicinity of suitable atomic transitions (16). The experiments were performed with linear polarization (that is, a coherent superposition of right and left circular polarization).…”

The Structure of Neutral Currents

“…Similar experiments have also been performed at Seattle (Lewis et at. 1977;Hollister et al 1980) and Oxford (Baird et al 1977;Baird 1980) . The basic physics behind these optical experiments goes as follows (Khriplovich 1974) ..…”

“…Determination of the (ee) <~11) parameters, ~and hAA. Theory (Novikov et al, 1976) -17 Theory (Sandars 1980) -13 Theory (Martensson et al, 1981) -11.1 876run Seattle (Hollister et al 1980) -9.3 ± 2.9…”