Parity nonconservation effect with laser-induced 2^3S_1 - 2^1S_0 transition in heavy heliumlike ions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the parity nonconservation effect in laser-induced transitions of heavy heliumlike ions, deriving an analytical formula and providing numerical results for gadolinium and thorium to guide future experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a simple analytical formula for PNC correction in heavy heliumlike ions and identifies promising candidates for experimental observation.

Findings

PNC effect is strongly enhanced near degeneracy of states.

Numerical results suggest gadolinium and thorium as promising candidates.

Experimental setups could utilize high-energy lasers or ultraviolet lasers with Doppler tuning.

Abstract

The parity nonconservation (PNC) effect on the laser-induced 2^3S_1 - 2^1S_0 transition in heavy heliumlike ions is considered. A simple analytical formula for the PNC correction to the cross section is derived for the case, when the opposite-parity 2^1S_0 and 2^3P_0 states are almost degenerate and, therefore, the PNC effect is strongly enhanced. Numerical results are presented for heliumlike gadolinium and thorium, which seem most promising candidates for such kind of experiments. In both Gd and Th cases the photon energy required will be anticipated with a high-energy laser built at GSI. Alternatively, it can be gained with ultraviolet lasers utilizing relativistic Doppler tuning at FAIR facilities in Darmstadt.