Comment on QED Corrections to the Parity Violating Asymmetry in High-Energy Electron-Nucleus Scattering

TL;DR

This paper critically examines claims of large QED radiative corrections to the parity-violating asymmetry in electron-nucleus scattering, showing that including axial-vector vertex corrections significantly reduces the proposed effect.

Contribution

It clarifies the impact of QED corrections on $A_{pv}$ by demonstrating the cancellation effect of axial-vector vertex corrections, refining previous estimates.

Findings

Including axial-vector vertex correction cancels much of the claimed 5% correction.

The corrected analysis suggests smaller radiative effects on $A_{pv}$.

Implications for interpreting parity-violation experiments are affected.

Abstract

In a recent letter Roca-Maza and Jakubassa-Amundsen claim a large $\approx 5\%$ radiative correction to the parity-violating asymmetry $A_{pv}$ in electron-nucleus scattering. If true, this would be important for the interpretation of the PREX, CREX, and MREX experiments. However, Roca-Maza and Jakubassa-Amundsen do not explicitly include the axial-vector vertex correction to $Z^0$ exchange (at the momentum transfer of the experiment). We show that including this cancels much of the change in $A_{pv}$.