Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 9: Electron scattering and recombination
A 9.1: Talk
Monday, March 12, 2012, 16:30–16:45, V57.05
Parity violation in the radiative electron capture of H-like heavy ions — •Jonas Gunst1,2 and Andrey Surzhykov1,2 — 1Universität Heidelberg — 2GSI Helmholtzzentrum, Darmstadt
Measurements of parity-violation (PV) effects in atomic systems attract considerable attention as a valuable tool for testing of the Standard Model in the low-energy regime. In the past, however, most of these PV experiments have dealt with neutral atoms. Much less attention was paid to highly-charged heavy ions which are alternative and very promising candidates for atomic PV studies. Most of the proposals for PV-experiments with such heavy few-electron species still require the application of spin-polarized ion beams and/or of circular polarization x-ray measurements. These experimental tasks, however, cannot be easily accomplished today. In this contribution, therefore, we propose and discuss a new method for observing the PV effects in highly-charged ions. The method employs the measurement of a linear polarization of the photons emitted due to the radiative electron capture (REC) into the 1s 2p 3P0 state of unpolarized helium-like heavy ions. For such a scenario, significant mixing of opposite-parity levels 2 3P0 and 2 1S0 may manifest itself in the rotation of the polarization out of the reaction plane that can be observed by the present-day solid-state detectors. In order to describe this PV-induced rotation, a theoretical model has been developed within the framework of the density matrix approach and relativistic Dirac equation. Detailed calculations have been performed for relativistic collisions of unpolarized (initially) hydrogen-like Gadolinium ions with an electronic target.