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Published in:
1983 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
The Search for Parity Non-Conservation in Atoms
Author : P. G. H. Sandars
Published in: Advances in Laser Spectroscopy
Publisher: Springer US
Included in: Professional Book Archive
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In the traditional picture of an atom the only interaction of concern is the electromagnetic, acting between the nucleons and the electrons and among the electrons themselves. As every undergraduate knows this interaction is invariant under space inversion; the atomic Hamiltonian therefore commutes with the parity operator and in the absence of degeneracy the atomic eigenstates have definite parity. The well-known parity selection rules then follow directly.