A PARITY VIOLATION TRANSMISSION EXPERIMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATE LABORATORIES

Abstract

Because there are currently no published weak interaction parity violation experiments specifically for undergraduate laboratories, a simple parity violation experiment is being developed using circularly polarized gamma rays. A 60Co source will be placed on one side of an electromagnet, so that the circularly polarized gamma rays emitted opposite the beta particles will pass through the electromagnet. A NaI detector detects the number of gamma rays that pass through the electromagnet, and a silicon detector detects in coincidence beta particles opposite the gamma rays. The number of 𝛾𝛽 coincidence events will be measured when the electromagnet is polarized both parallel and antiparallel to the gamma rays — an asymmetry between the number of coincidence events for each orientation would show that parity is violated.