Empirical parity-violating potentials and the coherent scattering of neutrons

Abstract

The rotation of the spin in the coherent scattering of polarised thermal neutrons was calculated using empirical parity-violating potentials. The results obtained are up to an order of magnitude larger than expected on the basis of dimensional arguments. The sign of the effect depends on the isospin properties of the weak potential and can distinguish between potentials with large isotensor or large isovector components.