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

Abstract

Due to electron-nucleus weak interaction, atomic bound states with different parities turn out to be mixed. We discuss a prospective method for measuring the mixing parameter between the nearly degenerate metastable states $1{s}_{1/2}2{s}_{1/2}:J=0$ and $1{s}_{1/2}2{p}_{1/2}:J=0$ in heliumlike uranium. Our analysis is based on the polarization properties of the photons emitted in the two-photon decays of such states.