Parity violation and electron scattering

This paper reviews the history of parity nonconservation in electron scattering. In electron scattering, parity violation (PV) is the unique signal which allows us to study the weak interactions among the much stronger electromagnetic ones. It is observed through the detection of a pseudoscalar quantity in the cross section or rate of a reaction. These pseudoscalars usually involve a spine or polarization. Since it is known that spine effects are more sensitive to dynamics than differential or total cross sections, which are partially determined by geometry, PV measurements allow us to learn about the weak interactions and nucleon and nuclear structure. Because the weak interactions are of short range, the measurements are sensitive to different aspects of the target structure than the long range electromagnetic scattering