Parity Violation in Hydrogen and Longitudinal Atomic Beam Spin Echo I

TL;DR

This paper explores how hydrogen atoms in a spin echo setup acquire geometric phases that reveal new parity-violation effects, providing theoretical groundwork for future experimental detection.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical analysis of P-violating geometric phases in hydrogen atoms within a spin echo apparatus, including conditions for adiabatic evolution and numerical calculations.

Findings

Identification of conditions for adiabatic evolution of hydrogen states

Analytical and numerical results on 2S state behavior

Theoretical basis for measuring P-violating phases

Abstract

We discuss the propagation of hydrogen atoms in static electric and magnetic fields in a longitudinal atomic beam spin echo (lABSE) apparatus. There the atoms acquire geometric (Berry) phases that exhibit a new manifestation of parity-(P-)violation in atomic physics. We provide analytical as well as numerical calculations of the behaviour of the metastable 2S states of hydrogen. The conditions for electromagnetic field configurations that allow for adiabatic evolution of the relevant atomic states are investigated. Our results provide the theoretical basis for the discussion of possible measurements of P-violating geometric phases in lABSE experiments.