Effects of nuclear parity violation in deuterium atoms and elastic electron-deuteron scattering

Abstract

The effects of nuclear parity violation on atomic deuterium parity violation experiments and elastic electron-deuteron scattering are treated. Since the hadronic isoscalar axial neutral weak current is very small in the Weinberg-Salam theory, the effects of nuclear parity violation are important in parity violation measurements which test the vector coupling to the electron and the axial (isoscalar) coupling to the deuteron. Such measurements have been proposed as a test of the Weinberg-Salam theory. A consistent treatment of the effect requires a modification of the impulse approximation to restore gauge invariance. It is found that parity nonconservation caused by nuclear parity violation is of the same order of magnitude as that caused by the anomaly-induced isoscalar axial neutral weak current or as that due to radiative corrections.NUCLEAR REACTIONS $^{2}\mathrm{H}(e,{e}^{\ensuremath{'}})^{2}\mathrm{H}$; parity-violating form factors, "nucleon-only" impulse approximation constrained by gauge invariance; induced isoscalar axial neutral weak current, radiative corrections.