Time-reversal breaking and parity-conserving millistrong interactions, suggested in 1965, still remain a viable mechanism of CP-violation beyond the Standard Model. One of its possible manifestations is the T-odd asymmetry in the transmission of tensor-polarized deuterons through a vector-polarized hydrogen gas target. Upon the rotation of the deuteron polarization from the vertical direction into the ring plane, the T-odd asymmetries, odd against the reversal of the proton polarization in the target, will continuously oscillate with first or second harmonics of the spin precession frequency. The Fourier analysis of the oscillating T-odd asymmetries allows for an easy separation from background persistent in conventional experiments employing static vector and tensor polarizations.
Nuclear physics tests of parity- and time-reversal invariance have both shaped the development of the Standard Model and provided key tests of its predictions. These studies now provide vital input in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model. We give a brief review of a few key experimental and theoretical developments in the history of this sub-field of nuclear physics as well as a short outlook, focusing on weak decays, parity-violation in electron scattering, and searches for permanent electric dipole moments of the neutron and neutral atoms.
Time reversal invariance violating parity conserving (TVPC) effects are calculated for elastic proton deuteron scattering with proton energies up to $2~$MeV. Distorted Wave Born Approximation is employed to estimate TVPC matrix elements, based on hadronic wave functions, obtained by solving three-body Faddeev-Merkuriev equations in configuration space with realistic potentials.
Using effective Lagrangians, we argue that any time-reversal-violating but parity-conserving effects are too small to be observed in flavor-conserving nuclear processes without dramatic improvement in experimental accuracy. In the process we discuss other arguments that have appeared in the literature.
I present the calculation of parity- and time-reversal-violating moments of the nucleon and light nuclei, originating from the QCD theta term and effective dimension-six operators. By applying chiral effective field theory these calculations are performed in a unified framework. I argue that measurements of a few light-nuclear electric dipole moments would shed light on the mechanism of parity and time-reversal violation.
Time reversal invariance violating parity conserving effects for low energy elastic neutron deuteron scattering are calculated for meson exchange and EFT-type of potentials in a Distorted Wave Born Approximation, using realistic hadronic wave functions, obtained by solving three-body Faddeev equations in configuration space.
The general formalism for polarization observables in elastic electron deuteron scattering is extended to incorporate parity and time reversal violating contributions. Parity violating effects arise from the interference of $γ$ and $Z$ exchange as well as from the hadronic sector via a small parity violating component in the deuteron. In addition we have allowed for time reversal invariance violating contributions in the hadronic sector. Formal expressions for the additional structure functions are derived, and their decomposition into the various multipole contributions are given explicitly.
We calculate the electric-dipole and magnetic-quadrupole form factors of the deuteron that arise as a low-energy manifestation of parity and time-reversal violation in quark-gluon interactions of effective dimension four and six: the QCD vacuum angle, the quark electric and chromo-electric dipole moments, and the gluon chromo-electric dipole moment. Within the framework of two-flavor chiral perturbation theory, we show that the relative sizes of the corresponding moments allow an identification of the symmetry-breaking source.
We apply the large-$N_c$ expansion to the time-reversal-invariance-violating (TV) nucleon-nucleon potential. The operator structures contributing to next-to-next-to-leading order in the large-$N_c$ counting are constructed. For the TV and parity-violating case we find a single operator structure at leading order. The TV but parity-conserving potential contains two leading-order terms, which however are suppressed by 1/$N_c$ compared to the parity-violating potential. Comparison with phenomenological potentials, including the chiral EFT potential in the TV parity-violating case, leads to large-…
The time independent mean field method (TIMF) for the calculation of matrix elements of non relativistic propagators is based on a variational principle whose non linearity induces a multiplicity of variational solutions. Several of them can break any symmetry shared by the Hamiltonian and initial and final states. We describe a soluble model where, in particular, time reversal and parity breakings occur. Such breakings account for important properties of propagation amplitudes.
Parity-violating and time-reversal conserving (PVTC) and parity-violating and time-reversal-violating (PVTV) forces in nuclei form only a tiny component of the total interaction between nucleons. The study of these tiny forces can nevertheless be of extreme interest because they allow to obtain information on fundamental symmetries using nuclear systems. The PVTC interaction derives from the weak interaction between the quarks inside nucleons and nuclei and the study of PVTC effects opens a window on the quark-quark weak interaction. The PVTV interaction is sensitive to more exotic interaction…
We propose a nuclear mechanism which can induce an atomic electric dipole moment (EDM). Parity and time reversal violating (P,T-odd) nuclear forces generate a mixed P,T-odd nuclear polarizability beta_{ik} (defined by an energy shift U = -beta_{ik} E_{i}H_{k}, E is electric field and H magnetic field). The interaction of atomic electrons with beta_{ik} produces an atomic EDM. We performed an analytical calculation of the P,T-odd nuclear polarizability and estimated the value for the induced atomic EDM. The measurements of atomic EDMs can provide information about P,T-odd nuclear forces and tes…
Parity-even time reversal violation (TRV) in the nucleon-nucleon interaction is reconsidered. The TRV $ρ$-exchange interaction on which recent analyses of measurements are based is necessarily also charge-symmetry breaking (CSB). Limits on its strength $\bar{g}_ρ$ relative to regular $ρ$-exchange are extracted from recent CSB experiments in neutron-proton scattering. The result $\bar{g}_ρ\le 6.7\times 10^{-3}$ (95% CL) is considerably lower than limits inferred from direct TRV tests in nuclear processes. Properties of $a_1$-exchange and limit imposed by the neutron EDM are briefly discussed.
We derive the parity- and time-reversal-violating nuclear interactions stemming from the QCD theta term and quark/gluon operators of effective dimension 6: quark electric dipole moments, quark and gluon chromo-electric dipole moments, and two four-quark operators. We work in the framework of two-flavor chiral perturbation theory, where a systematic expansion is possible. The different chiral-transformation properties of the sources of time-reversal violation lead to different hadronic interactions. For all sources considered the leading-order potential involves known one-pion exchange, but its…
We perform a systematic study of flavor-diagonal parity- and time-reversal-violating operators of dimension six which could arise from physics beyond the SM. We begin at the unknown high-energy scale where these operators originate. At this scale the operators are constrained by gauge invariance which has important consequences for the form of effective operators at lower energies. In particular for the four-quark operators. We calculate one-loop QCD and, when necessary, electroweak corrections to the operators and evolve them down to the electroweak scale and subsequently to hadronic scales. …
We calculate the toroidal quadrupole moment and form factor of the deuteron, which violate time-reversal symmetry but conserve parity, at leading order in two-flavor chiral effective field theory with perturbative pion exchange. We take into account time-reversal and parity violation due to the QCD vacuum angle combined with parity violation resulting from the weak interaction in the Standard Model. We also consider time-reversal and parity violation that at the quark-gluon level results from effective dimension-six operators originating from physics beyond the Standard Model.
Parity- and time reversal-violating (PVTV) pion-nucleon couplings govern the magnitude of long-range contributions to nucleon and atomic electric dipole moments. When these couplings arise from chiral symmetry-breaking CP-violating operators, such as the QCD $θ$-term or quark chromoelectric dipole moments, one may relate hadronic matrix elements entering the PVTV couplings to nucleon and pion mass shifts by exploiting the corresponding chiral transformation properties at leading order (LO) in the chiral expansion. We compute the higher-order contributions to the lowest order relations arising …
Parity violating (PV) as well as parity and time-reversal invariance violating (PTRIV) effects are enhanced a million times in neutron reactions near p-wave compound resonances. We present the calculation of such effects using a statistical theory based on the properties of chaotic eigenstates and discuss a possibility to extract the strength constants of PTRIV interactions from the experimental data, including nucleon-nucleon and pion-nucleon CP-violating interactions, the QCD theta-term and the quark chromo-EDM. PV effects have random sign for all target nuclei except for 232Th, where PV eff…
The isovector time-reversal- and parity-violating pion-nucleon coupling $\bar{g}_π^{(1)}$ is uniquely sensitive to dimension six interactions between right-handed light quarks and the Standard Model Higgs doublet that naturally arises in left-right symmetric models. Recent work has used the $\bar{g}_π^{(1)}$-induced one-loop contribution to the neutron electric dipole moment $d_n$, together with the present experimental $d_n$ bound, to constrain the CP-violating parameters of the left-right symmetric model. We show that this and related analyses are based on an earlier meson theory $d_n$ compu…
The spin structure of parity violating and time reversal invariance violating effects in neutron scattering is discussed. The explicit relations between these effects are presented in terms of functions nuclear spins and neutron partial widths of p-wave resonances.
Tensor representation (TR) for wave function (WF) of three-nucleon bound state with the total angular momentum I=1/2 is discussed. The WF in TR has 16 complex components depending on vectors of relative momenta. Constraints on the WF imposed by requirements of invariance with respect to space inversion and time reversal are studied. Both parity-even and parity-odd components of the 3N bound state are constructed using 16 scalar functions. The arguments of the functions are magnitudes of relative momenta and scalar product of the momenta. With nuclear forces being time-reversal invariant these …
We show that the present experimental limits on electron-nucleon interactions that violate both parity and time reversal invariance provide new stringent bounds on the imaginary parts of some of the products of the R-parity violating coupling constants in the R-parity violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.
Time reversal invariance violating (TRIV) effects for low energy elastic neutron deuteron scattering are calculated for meson exchange and EFT-type of TRIV potentials in a Distorted Wave Born Approximation, using realistic hadronic strong interaction wave functions, obtained by solving three-body Faddeev equations in configuration space. The relation between TRIV and parity violating observables are discussed.
Octupole deformation results in a strongly enhanced collective Schiff moment in 229Th nucleus. An additional enhancement of time reversal (T) and parity (P) violating effects (such as T,P-violating electric dipole moments) appears in the ground 1Sigma state and in the metastable 3Delta_1 state of diatomic molecule 229ThO. Similar enhancements exist in molecular ions 229ThOH+, 229ThF+ and 225,223RaOH+. Corresponding experiments may be used to test CP-violation theories predicting T,P-violating nuclear forces and to search for axions.
Apart from the $pd$ reaction also the scattering of antiprotons with transversal polarization $p_y^p$ on deuterons with tensor polarization $P_{xz}$ provides a null-test signal for time-reversal-invariance violating but parity conserving effects. Assuming that the time-reversal-invariance violating $\bar NN$ interaction contains the same operator structure as the $NN$ interaction, we discuss the energy dependence of the null-test signal in $\bar pd$ scattering on the basis of a calculation within the spin-dependent Glauber theory at beam energies of 50-300 MeV.
A novel test of time-reversal invariance in proton-deuteron scattering is planned as an internal target transmission experiment at the cooler synchrotron COSY. The P-even, T-odd observable is the polarization correlation $A_{y,xz}$ of the total cross section measured using a polarized internal proton beam (polarization $p_y$) and an internal polarized deuterium target (tensor polarization $p_{xz}$). Measuring this observable is a true null test of time reversal invariance and therefore allows to reach a high accuracy. Sufficient luminosity can be obtained using a window-less storage cell place…
Planning and interpretation of the experiments searching for the time reversal (T) and parity (P) violation in neutron reactions require values of the matrix elements of the T,P-violating nuclear forces between nuclear compound states. We calculate the root mean square values and the ratio of the matrix elements of the T,P-violating and P-violating interactions using statistical theory based on the properties of chaotic compound states and present the results in terms of the fundamental parameters in four different forms: in terms of the constants of the contact nuclear interaction, meson exch…
The observance of parity conserving time reversal violation in light quark systems could signal the presence of physics beyond the Standard Model. I discuss the implications of low-energy time reversal tests for the existence of such T-violating, P-conserving (TVPC) interactions. I argue that searches for permanent electric dipole moments (EDM's) and direct TVPC searches provide complementary information on P-conserving T-violation. EDM searches yield constraints only under the assumption that parity symmetry is restored at the scale Lambda associated with new TVPC physics. If parity remains b…
The use of spin observables to study the semi-leptonic and non-leptonic weak interaction in atoms and nuclei is surveyed. In particular, the use of semi-leptonic neutral current scattering and atomic parity violation to search for physics beyond the Standard Model is reviewed. The status of nuclear parity violation as a probe of the weak N-N interaction is surveyed. Possible atomic and nuclear signatures of parity conserving, time-reversal violating interactions are also discussed.
The anapole moment is a parity-odd and time-reversal-even electromagnetic moment. Although it was conjectured shortly after the discovery of parity nonconservation, its existence has not been confirmed until recently in heavy nuclear systems, which are known to be the suitable laboratories because of the many-body enhancement. By carefully identifying the nuclear-spin-dependent atomic parity nonconserving effect, the first clear evidence was found in cesium. In this talk, I will discuss how nuclear anapole moments are used to constrain the parity-nonconserving nuclear force, a still less well-…
A time-reversal-violating spin-correlation coefficient in the total cross section for polarized neutrons incident on a tensor rank-2 polarized target is calculated by assuming a time-reversal-noninvariant, parity-conserving ``five-fold" interaction in the neutron-nucleus optical potential. Results are presented for the system $n + {^{165}{\rm Ho}}$ for neutron incident energies covering the range 1--20 MeV. From existing experimental bounds, a strength of $2 \pm 10$ keV is deduced for the real and imaginary parts of the five-fold term, which implies an upper bound of order $10^{-4}$ on the rel…
We investigate the resonant regime of a mesoscopic cavity made of graphene or a doped beam splitter. Using Non-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics, we consider the Bender-Boettcher assumption that a system must obey parity and time reversal symmetry. Therefore, we describe such system by coupling chirality, parity and time reversal symmetries through the scattering matrix formalism and apply it in the shot noise functions, also derived here. Finally we show how to achieve the resonant regime only by setting properly the parameters concerning the chirality and the PT symmetry.
Scattering of protons with transversal polarization $p_y^p$ on deuterons with tensor polarization $P_{xz}$ provides a null-test signal for time-reversal (T) invariance violating but parity (P) conserving effects. We calculate the corresponding null-test observable at beam energies 100-1000 MeV within the spin-dependent Glauber theory considering T-violating P-conserving nucleon-nucleon interactions. The S-wave component of the deuteron wave function as well as the D-wave are taken into account and the latter is found to play an important role for the magnitude and the energy dependence of the …
We investigate parity and time-reversal violation in neutron-proton scattering in the optical regime. We calculate the neutron spin rotation and analyzing power in scattering on polarized protons. This allows us to quantify the sensitivity that such experiments should aim for in order to be competitive to present-day measurements of the neutron electric dipole moment in constraining the $P$- and $T$-odd two-nucleon interaction. While state-of-the-art techniques fall short by some three orders of magnitude for the neutron-proton case, specific neutron-nucleus experiments look promising, provide…
Anapole moments are parity-odd, time-reversal-even moments of the E1 projection of the electromagnetic current. Although it was recognized, soon after the discovery of parity violation in the weak interaction, that elementary particles and composite systems like nuclei must have anapole moments, it proved difficult to isolate this weak radiative correction. The first successful measurement, an extraction of the nuclear anapole moment of 133Cs from the hyperfine dependence of the atomic parity violation, was obtained only recently. An important anapole moment bound in Tl also exists. We discuss…
Ratios involving on-resonance measurements of the three-fold and five-fold correlation cross sections for which the dependence on some of the unknown spectroscopic data is eliminated are considered. Closed form expressions are derived for the statistical distributions of these ratios. Implications for bounds on the variance of matrix elements of time reversal non-invariant nucleon-nucleon interactions are considered within a Bayesian framework and the competitiveness with bounds from other experiments is evaluated. The prospects for null five-fold correlation measurements improving by an order…
We calculate the Schiff moment of the nucleus 199Hg, created by pi-N-N vertices that are odd under parity (P) and time-reversal (T). Our approach, formulated in diagrammatic perturbation theory with important core-polarization diagrams summed to all orders, gives a close approximation to the expectation value of the Schiff operator in the odd-A Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov ground state generated by a Skyrme interaction and a weak P- and T-odd pion-exchange potential. To assess the uncertainty in the results, we carry out the calculation with several Skyrme interactions (the quality of which we test…
