Parity-nonconservation effects on the radiative recombination of heavy hydrogenlike ions

Abstract

Based on the theoretical analysis of the radiative recombination of heavy hydrogen-like ions with unpolarized electrons, a scheme is proposed for observing atomic parity nonconservation (PNC). The scheme employs the sensitivity of the polarization properties of recombination photons on the PNC-induced mixing of opposite-parity ionic levels. For the electron capture into the $1s2p\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{}^{3}{P}_{0}$ state of helium-like ions, in particular, the PNC leads to a rotation of the photon linear polarization on the angle, directly proportional to the $1s2p\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{}^{3}{P}_{0}$--$1s2s\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{}^{1}{S}_{0}$ mixing parameter. Owing to the recent advances in the development of x-ray polarimeters, the observation of such a rotation angle and, hence, the corresponding parity mixing is likely to become feasible in the future.