arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M. J. Ramsey-Musolf.
I discuss several physics issues that can be addressed through the present and future program of parity-violating electron scattering measurements. In particular, I focus on strange quark form factors, hadronic effects in electroweak radiative corrections, and physics beyond the Standard Model.
We compute the supersymmetric (SUSY) contributions to neutrino (antineutrino)-nucleus deep inelastic scattering in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We consider the ratio of neutral current to charged current cross sections, $R_ν$ and $R_{\bar ν}$, and compare with the deviations of these quantities from the Standard Model predictions implied by the recent NuTeV measurement. After performing a model-independent analysis, we find that SUSY loop corrections generally have the opposite sign from the NuTeV anomaly. We discuss one scenario in which a right-sign effect arises, and show that it is ruled out by other precision data. We also study for R parity-violating (RPV) contributions. Although RPV effects could, in principle, reproduce the NuTeV anomaly, such a possibility is also ruled out by other precision electroweak measurements.
We compute contributions to the parity-violating (PV) inelastic electron-deuteron scattering asymmetry arising from hadronic PV. While hadronic PV effects can be relatively important in PV threshold electro- disintegration, we find that they are highly suppressed at quasielastic kinematics. The interpretation of the PV quasielastic asymmetry is, thus, largely unaffected by hadronic PV.
We show that the radiative corrections to charged current (CC) nuclear reactions with an electron(positron) in the final state are described by a universal function. The consistency of our treatment of the radiative corrections with the procedure used to extract the value of the axial coupling constant $g_A$ is discussed. To illustrate we apply our results to (anti)neutrino deuterium disintegration and to $pp$ fusion in the sun. The limit of vanishing electron mass is considered, and a simple formula valid for $E_{obs}\gsim 1$ MeV is obtained. The size of the nuclear structure-dependent effects is also discussed. Finally, we consider CC transitions with an electron(positron) in the initial state and discuss some applications to electron capture reactions.
We study the off-diagonal Goldberger-Treiman relation (ODGTR) and its discrepancy (ODGTD) in the N, Delta, pi sector through O(p^2) using heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. To this order, the ODGTD and axial vector N to Delta transition radius are determined solely by low energy constants. Loop corrections appear at O(p^4). For low-energy constants of natural size, the ODGTD would represent a ~ 2% correction to the ODGTR. We discuss the implications of the ODGTR and ODGTD for lattice and quark model calculations of the transition form factors and for parity-violating electroexcitation of the Delta.
We analyze the q^2-dependence of the strange magnetic form factor, \GMS(q^2), using heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT) and dispersion relations. We find that in HBChPT a significant cancellation occurs between the O(p^2) and O(p^3) loop contributions. Consequently, the slope of \GMS at the origin displays an enhanced sensitivity to an unknown O(p^3) low-energy constant. Using dispersion theory, we estimate the magnitude of this constant, show that it may have a natural size, and conclude that the low-q^2 behavior of \GMS could be dominated by nonperturbative physics. We also discuss the implications for the interpretation of parity-violating electron scattering measurements used to measure \GMS(q^2).
We compute the chiral corrections to octet baryon axial currents through ${\cal O}(p^3)$ in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory, including both octet and decuplet baryon intermediate states. We include the latter in a consistent way by using the small scale expansion. We find that, in contrast to the situation at ${\cal O}(p^2)$, there exist no cancellations between octet and decuplet contributions at ${\cal O}(p^3)$. Consequently, the ${\cal O}(p^3)$ corrections spoil the expected scaling behavior of the chiral expansion. We discuss this result in terms of the $1/N_c$ expansion. We also consider the implications for determination of the strange quark contribution to the nucleon spin from polarized deep inelastic scattering data.
We compute the one-loop supersymmetric (SUSY) contributions to the weak charges of the electron ($Q_W^e$) and proton ($Q_W^p$) using the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). These $q^2=0$ vector couplings of the $Z^0$-boson to fermions will be determined in two fixed-target, parity-violating electron scattering experiments. The SUSY loop contributions to $Q_W^p$ and $Q_W^e$ can be substantial, leading to several percent corrections to the Standard Model values for these quantities. We show that the relative signs of the SUSY loop effects on $Q_W^e$ and $Q_W^p$ are correlated and positive over nearly all of the MSSM parameter space, whereas inclusion of R-parity nonconserving interactions can lead to opposite sign relative shifts in the weak charges. Thus, a comparison of $Q_W^p$ and $Q_W^e$ measurements could help distinguish between different SUSY scenarios.
A remarkably successful program of parity-violating electron scattering experiments is providing new insight into the structure of the nucleon. Measurement of the vector form factors enables a definitive study of potential strange quark-antiquark contributions to the electromagnetic structure such as the magnetic moment and charge distribution. Recent experimental results have already indicated that effects of strangeness are much smaller than theoretically expected. In addition, the neutral axial form factor appears to display substantial corrections as one might expect from an anapole effect.
We analyze the real photon asymmetry $A^\pm_γ$ for the parity violating (PV) $π^\pm$ production on the $Δ$ resonance via the reactions ${\vec γ} + p \to Δ^+ \to π^+ + n$ and ${\vec γ} + d \to Δ^0 + p \to π^- + p + p$. This asymmetry is nonvanishing due to a PV $γN Δ$ coupling constant, $d^\pm_Δ$. We argue that an experimental determination of this coupling would be of interest for hadron dynamics, possibly shedding light on the S-wave/P-wave puzzle in the hyperon nonleptonic decays and the violation of Hara's theorem in weak radiative hyperon decays.
The radiative corrections of order $α$ for the charged and neutral current neutrino-deuterium disintegration for energies relevant to the SNO experiment are evaluated. Particular attention is paid to the issue of the bremsstrahlung detection threshold. It is shown that the radiative corrections to the total cross section for the charged current reaction are independent of that threshold, as they must be for consistency, and amount to a slowly decreasing function of the neutrino energy $E_ν$, varying from $\sim$ 4% at low energies to $\sim$ 3% at the end of the $^8$B spectrum. The differential cross section corrections, on the other hand, do depend on the bremsstrahlung detection threshold. Various choices of the threshold are discussed. It is shown that for a realistic choice of the threshold, and for the actual electron energy threshold of the SNO detector, the deduced $^8$B $ν_e$ flux should be decreased by $\sim$ 2%. The radiative corrections to the neutral current reaction are also evaluated.
We compute the complete one-loop contributions to low-energy charged current weak interaction observables in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We obtain the constraints on the MSSM parameter space which arise when precision low-energy charged current data are analyzed in tandem with measurements of the muon anomaly. While the data allow the presence of at least one light neutralino, they also imply a pattern of mass splittings among first and second generation sleptons and squarks which contradict predictions of widely used models for supersymmetry breaking mediation.
Nuclear anapole moments are parity-odd, time-reversal-even E1 moments of the electromagnetic current operator. Although the existence of this moment was recognized theoretically soon after the discovery of parity nonconservation (PNC), its experimental isolation was achieved only recently, when a new level of precision was reached in a measurement of the hyperfine dependence of atomic PNC in 133Cs. An important anapole moment bound in 205Tl also exists. In this paper, we present the details of the first calculation of these anapole moments in the framework commonly used in other studies of hadronic PNC, a meson exchange potential that includes long-range pion exchange and enough degrees of freedom to describe the five independent $S-P$ amplitudes induced by short-range interactions. The resulting contributions of pi-, rho-, and omega-exchange to the single-nucleon anapole moment, to parity admixtures in the nuclear ground state, and to PNC exchange currents are evaluated, using configuration-mixed shell-model wave functions. The experimental anapole moment constraints on the PNC meson-nucleon coupling constants are derived and compared with those from other tests of the hadronic weak interaction. While the bounds obtained from the anapole moment results are consistent with the broad ``reasonable ranges'' defined by theory, they are not in good agreement with the constraints from the other experiments. We explore possible explanations for the discrepancy and comment on the potential importance of new experiments.
We analyze the degree to which parity-violating (PV) electroexcitation of the $Δ(1232)$ resonance may be used to extract the weak neutral axial vector transition form factors. We find that the axial vector electroweak radiative corrections are large and theoretically uncertain, thereby modifying the nominal interpretation of the PV asymmetry in terms of the weak neutral form factors. We also show that, in contrast to the situation for elastic electron scattering, the axial $N\toΔ$ PV asymmetry does not vanish at the photon point as a consequence of a new term entering the radiative corrections. We argue that an experimental determination of these radiative corrections would be of interest for hadron structure theory, possibly shedding light on the violation of Hara's theorem in weak, radiative hyperon decays.
We compute the photon asymmetry $B_γ$ for near threshold parity violating (PV) pion photoproduction through sub-leading order. We show that sub-leading contributions involve a new combination of PV couplings not included in previous analyses of hadronic PV. We argue that existing constraints on the leading order contribution to $B_γ$ -- obtained from the PV $γ$-decay of $^{18}$F -- suggest that the impact of the subleading contributions may be more significant than expected from naturalness argumen
Standard analyses of low-energy NN and nuclear parity-violating observables have been based on a pi-, rho-, and omega-exchange model capable of describing all five independent s-p partial waves. Here a parallel analysis is performed for the one-body, exchange-current, and nuclear polarization contributions to the anapole moments of 133Cs and 205Tl. The resulting constraints are not consistent, though there remains some degree of uncertainty in the nuclear structure analysis of the atomic moments.
We construct the relationship between nonrenormalizable,effective, time-reversal violating (TV) parity-conserving (PC) interactions of quarks and gauge bosons and various low-energy TVPC and TV parity-violating (PV) observables. Using effective field theory methods, we delineate the scenarious under which experimental limits on permanent electric dipole moments (EDM's) of the electron, neutron, and neutral atoms as well as limits on TVPC observables provide the most stringent bounds on new TVPC interactions. Under scenarios in which parity invariance is restored at short distances, the one-loop EDM of elementary fermions generate the most severe constraints. The limits derived from the atomic EDM of $^{199}$Hg are considerably weaker. When parity symmetry remains broken at short distances, direct TVPC search limits provide the least ambiguous bounds. The direct limits follow from TVPC interactions between two quarks.
The observance of parity conserving time reversal violation in light quark systems could signal the presence of physics beyond the Standard Model. I discuss the implications of low-energy time reversal tests for the existence of such T-violating, P-conserving (TVPC) interactions. I argue that searches for permanent electric dipole moments (EDM's) and direct TVPC searches provide complementary information on P-conserving T-violation. EDM searches yield constraints only under the assumption that parity symmetry is restored at the scale Lambda associated with new TVPC physics. If parity remains broken at short distances, direct searches yield the least ambiguous bounds. In the latter case, improving the experimental precision of direct TVPC searches in neutron beta-decay and polarized epithermal neutron transmission at the Spallation Neutron Source could yield tighter bounds.