Nuclei as Laboratories: Nuclear Tests of Fundamental Symmetries

The prospect of a rare isosotope accelerator facility opens up possibilities for a new generation of nuclear tests of fundamental symmetries. In this talk, I survey the current landscape of such tests and discuss future opportunities that a new facility might present.Comment: To appear in proceedings of 3rd ANL/MSU/INT/JINA Theory Workshop, Argonne National Laboratory (April, 2006); 13 page

Atomic Parity Nonconservation: Electroweak Parameters and Nuclear Structure

There have been suggestions to measure atomic parity nonconservation (PNC) along an isotopic chain, by taking ratios of observables in order to cancel complicated atomic structure effects. Precise atomic PNC measurements could make a significant contribution to tests of the Standard Model at the level of one loop radiative corrections. However, the results also depend upon certain features of nuclear structure, such as the spatial distribution of neutrons in the nucleus. To examine the sensitivity to nuclear structure, we consider the case of Pb isotopes using various recent relativistic and non-relativistic nuclear model calculations. Contributions from nucleon internal weak structure are included, but found to be fairly negligible. The spread among present models in predicted sizes of nuclear structure effects may preclude using Pb isotope ratios to test the Standard Model at better than a one percent level, unless there are adequate independent tests of the nuclear models by various alternative strong and electroweak nuclear probes. On the other hand, sufficiently accurate atomic PNC experiments would provide a unique method to measure neutron distributions in heavy nuclei.Comment: 44 pages, INT Preprint DOE/ER/40561-050-INT92-00-1

An Introduction to Nuclear Supersymmetry: a Unification Scheme for Nuclei

The main ideas behind nuclear supersymmetry are presented, starting from the basic concepts of symmetry and the methods of group theory in physics. We propose new, more stringent experimental tests that probe the supersymmetry classification in nuclei and point out that specific correlations should exist for particle transfer intensities among supersymmetric partners. We also discuss possible ways to generalize these ideas to cases where no dynamical symmetries are present. The combination of these theoretical and experimental studies may play a unifying role in nuclear phenomena.Comment: 40 pages, 11 figures, lecture notes `VIII Hispalensis International Summer School: Exotic Nuclear Physics', Oromana, Sevilla, Spain, June 9-21, 200

Tests of the Gravitational Inverse-Square Law

We review recent experimental tests of the gravitational inverse-square law and the wide variety of theoretical considerations that suggest the law may break down in experimentally accessible regions.Comment: 81 pages, 10 figures, submitted by permission of the Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. Final version of this material is scheduled to appear in the Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science Vol. 53, to be published in December 2003 by Annual Reviews, http://AnnualReviews.or

Testing the Standard Model with Kaon Decays

During the last few years, new experimental and theoretical results have allowed ever more stringent tests of the Standard Model to be performed using kaon decays. This overview of recent progress includes an updated evaluation of the CKM matrix element Vus. Tests of CKM unitarity and gauge universality and lepton universality tests with Kl2 and Kl3 decays are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Prepared for the proceedings of the Eleventh Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics (CIPANP '12), St. Petersburg, FL, 29 May - 03 June 201

Everything you always wanted to know about SUSY, but were afraid to ask

New experimental tests of nuclear supersymmetry are suggested. They involve the measurement of one- and two-nucleon transfer reactions between nuclei that belong to the same supermultiplet. These reactions provide a direct test of the `fermionic' sector, i.e. of the operators that change a boson into a fermion or vice versa. We present some theoretical predictions for the supersymmetric quartet of nuclei: 194Pt, 195Pt, 195Au and 196Au.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of `Symmetries in Nuclear Structure', March 23-29, 2003, Erice, Ital