Exploring new opportunities in hadronic parity nonconservation: using recent NN-interaction models to calculate parity-odd nuclear matrix elements <M²> from experiment

Recent progress in our knowledge of nucleon-nucleon (NN) interactions can enable new comparisons with the long-established statistical theory of parity (P) violation in neutron-nucleus resonance reactions in heavy nuclei, where the huge amplification effects seen in these P-violating effects are not yet fully understood. It is important to further extend the theory for these amplification of discrete symmetry violations in heavy nuclei, which was developed and tested experimentally by the TRIPLE collaboration, who measured more than 75 P-odd asymmetries across dozens of nuclear isotopes in work largely conducted between 1990 – 2000. The interpretation of these experimental results relied on assumptions made about the statistical nature of these nuclei in order to make the underlying theory tractable; however, recent progress in NN-interaction theory can allow these results to be revisited and the validity of these models to be reevaluated under the scope of these new theories. The results of these methods can then be applied to current nuclear resonance spectroscopy campaigns, where knowledge of the total spin of nuclear resonance states is required. This talk will summarize the current status of theoretical work in NN weak interaction amplitudes, future opportunities to improve the precision of TRIPLE’s determination of the mean-squared weak matrix element, <M²> in heavy nuclei through present-day P-violation measurement campaigns (and through re-analysis of the TRIPLE results).