Collaborative Research: New Directions in Atomic PNC

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New theoretical methods are developed, within the framework of relativistic many-bodytheory, to treat parity nonconservation (PNC) in heavy atoms. The goal of this research is toimprove the accuracy of PNC amplitudes in atoms and ions of experimental interest. Reducingthe error in PNC calculations leads to more accurate experimental weak charges QW, quantitiesthat depend on atomic theory and in turn provide valuable tests of the standard electroweakmodel. Precise calculations of the nuclear spin-dependent PNC amplitudes provide data neededto extract accurate anapole moments from PNC experiments. These in turn shed light oninconsistencies between constraints on weak nucleon-nucleon coupling constants obtained fromthe experimental anapole moment of cesium and those obtained from other nuclear PNCmeasurements.To improve calculations of PNC matrix elements, an indirect method that eliminates truncationerrors is developed to perform sums over intermediate states. This method leads to alarge set of inhomogeneous linear equations, similar to the singles-doubles (SD) equations developed earlier by this group.