Influence of perturbations on the electron wave function inside the nucleus

A variation of the valence electron wave function inside a nucleus induced by a perturbative potential is expressed in terms of the potential momenta. As an application we consider QED vacuum polarization corrections due to the Uehling and Wichmann-Kroll potentials to the weak interaction matrix elements.Comment: 16 pages, Latex, IOP stil

QED radiative corrections to parity nonconservation in heavy atoms

The self-energy and vertex QED radiative corrections (Z alpha^2 f(Z alpha)) are shown to give a large negative contribution to the parity nonconserving (PNC) amplitude in heavy atoms. The correction -0.7(2)% found for the 6s-7s PNC amplitude in Cs brings the experimental result for this transition into agreement with the standard model. The calculations are based on a new identity that expresses the radiative corrections to the PNC matrix element via corrections to the energy shifts induced by the finite nuclear size.Comment: Revtex, 6 pages, 2 figure

Exchange-assisted tunneling in the classical limit

The exchange interaction and correlations may produce a power-law decay instead of the usual exponential decrease of the wave function under potential barrier. The exchange-assisted tunneling vanishes in the classical limit, however, the dependence on the Planck constant h is different from that for a conventional single-particle tunneling

"Colliding beam" enhancement mechanism of deuteron-deuteron fusion reactions in matter

We suggest a ``ping-pong'' mechanism of enhancement for fusion reactions between a low energy external deuteron beam and the deuterons in a condensed matter or molecular target. The mechanism is based on the possibility of acceleration of a target deuteron by the Coulomb field of a projectile deuteron with its subsequent rebound from a heavy atom in matter and the following fusion of the two deuterons moving towards each other. This effectively converts the fixed target process into a colliding beam reaction. In a simple limiting case this reduces the negative penetrability exponent by a factor of $\sqrt{2}$. We also discuss a contribution given by ``zero oscillations'' of a bound target deuteron. The proposed mechanism is expected to be efficient in compounds with target deuterons localized in the vicinity of heavy atoms.Comment: 4 page