Published September 1, 1981 | Version v1
Journal article

Observations of parity nonconservation in atomic thallium

  • 1. Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Description

A detailed account is given of observations of parity nonconservation in the 6 2P/sub 1/2/-7 2P/sub 1/2/ transition in /sup 203,205/81Tl. Absorption of circularly polarized 293-nm photons by 6 2P/sub 1/2/ atoms in an E field results in polarization of the 7 2P/sub 1/2/ state through interference of the Stark E1 amplitude with M1 and parity-nonconserving E1 amplitudes. This polarization is detected by selective excitation of m/sub F/ = +- 1 components of the 7 2P/sub 1/2/ state to the 8 2S/sub 1/2/ state and observation of the ensuing decay fluorescence at 323 nm. Systematic corrections due to imperfect circular polarization, misaligned E fields, and residual magnetic fields are determined precisely by a series of auxiliary experiments. The result is expressed in terms of the circular dichroism delta/sub expt/ = +(2.8/sup +1.0//sub -0.9/) x 10-3, to be compared with estimates based on the Weinberg-Salam model for sin2 theta/sub w/ = 0.23: delta/sub theo/ = +(2.1 +- 0.7) x 10-3

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Phys. Rev., D
Journal Volume
24
Journal Issue
5
Series
Phys. Rev., D.
Journal Page Range
1134-1148
ISSN
0556-2821