Parity non-conservation in samarium

Abstract

The properties of the close lying 4f66s6p 7G1 and 4f65d6s 7G1 states in Sm were examined as a possible system for an experiment on atomic parity non-conservation. The authors find that the electron-electron matrix element is appreciably smaller than the Coulomb-induced electron-nucleus interaction. An estimate of the appropriate M1 transition element to the 4f66s2 7F0 ground state suggests optical rotations as large as 10-4 rad at one absorption length. However, in practice, the background from the allowed E1 transition will reduce the observable effect. An alternative scheme involving the electric-field-induced amplitude is suggested.