Parity Violating Interactions and Currents in the Deuteron

Abstract

We investigate parity-violating asymmetries in polarized n p radiative capture, and deuteron electro-disintegration in quasi-elastic kinematics, using the DDH model for the parity-violating nucleon-nucleon interaction. We find dramatic cancellations between the asymmetries induced by the parity-violating interaction and those arising from the associated parity-violating pion-exchange currents. In np capture, the model-dependence of the result is nevertheless quite small because of constraints arising through the Siegert evaluation of the relevant E1 matrix element. In quasi-elastic electron scattering these processes are found to be insignificant comared to the asymmetry produced by the gamma-Z interference on individual nucleons. These two experiments, then, provide clean probes of different aspects of weak-interaction physics associated with parity violation in the np system.