Parity mixing of 0(+) and 0(-) levels in 18F

Parity-violating nucleon-nucleon force in the 1/N(c) expansion

Several experimental investigations have observed parity violation (PV) in nuclear systems-a consequence of the weak force between quarks. We apply the 1/N(c) expansion of QCD to the P-violating T-conserving component of the nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential. We show there are two leading-order operators, both of which affect p[over →]p scattering at order N(c). We find an additional four operators at order N(c)(0)sin(2)θ(W) and six at O(1/N(c)). Pion exchange in the PV NN force is suppressed by 1/N(c) and sin(2)θ(W), providing a quantitative explanation for its nonobservation up to this time. The large-N(c) hierarchy of other PV NN force mechanisms is consistent with estimates of the couplings in phenomenological models. The PV observed in p[over →]p scattering data is compatible with natural values for the strong and weak coupling constants: there is no evidence of fine-tuning.

New limit on possible long-range parity-odd interactions of the neutron from neutron-spin rotation in liquid 4He

Various theories beyond the standard model predict new particles with masses in the sub-eV range with very weak couplings to ordinary matter. A parity-odd interaction between polarized nucleons and unpolarized matter proportional to g(V)g(A)s · p is one such possibility, where s[over →] and p[over →] are the spin and the momentum of the polarized nucleon, and g(V) and g(A) are the vector and axial vector couplings of an interaction induced by the exchange of a new light vector boson. We report a new experimental upper bound on such possible long-range parity-odd interactions of the neutron with nucleons and electrons from a recent search for parity violation in neutron spin rotation in liquid ^{4}He. Our constraint on the product of vector and axial vector couplings of a possible new light vector boson is g(V) g(A)(n) ≤ 10(-32) for an interaction range of 1 m. This upper bound is more than 7 orders of magnitude more stringent than the existing laboratory constraints for interaction ranges below 1 m, corresponding to a broad range of vector boson masses above 10(-6) eV. More sensitive searches for a g(V) g(A)(n) coupling could be performed using neutron spin rotation measurements in heavy nuclei or through analysis of experiments conducted to search for nucleon-nucleon weak interactions and nuclear anapole moments.