Conductors and weak interaction

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the potential for semiconducting or superconducting devices to exhibit clear parity violation through weak interactions. Participants debate the role of weak elastic scattering in electron-electron and electron-nucleus interactions, emphasizing that electromagnetic interactions dominate and may obscure weak effects. Despite the theoretical possibility of weak interactions influencing atomic wave functions, no experimental evidence currently supports this, with tools like Mossbauer spectroscopy and NMR showing no observable weak interactions with electrons. The consensus is that while leptons, including electrons, can interact via the weak force, these effects remain largely unobserved and require advanced instrumentation for potential discovery.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of weak nuclear force and its interactions
  • Familiarity with electromagnetic interactions in quantum mechanics
  • Knowledge of atomic wave functions and their symmetries
  • Experience with experimental physics tools such as Mossbauer spectroscopy and NMR
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the role of weak interactions in beta decay and electron capture
  • Explore advanced instrumentation techniques for detecting weak interactions
  • Study the electroweak theory and its implications for particle interactions
  • Investigate the effects of weak elastic scattering on atomic properties
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Physicists, researchers in particle physics, and anyone interested in the nuances of weak interactions and their potential implications in quantum mechanics and materials science.

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TL;DR
Can weak interaction on conduction electrons be seen if electromagnetic cancels out by symmetry?
Are there any plausible semiconducting or superconducting devices which would show clear parity violation?
Electrons in matter are governed overwhelmingly by electromagnetic interactions. Electron-electron, and electron-nuclei.

However, there is in principle some weak interaction. Elastic weak interaction collisions electron-electron and electron-nucleus.
And electromagnetic interactions are constrained by space and time parity.

Are there any effects where the electromagnetic interactions of electrons in conductor would cancel out by parity symmetries, leaving the weak elastic scattering as the macroscopically visible effect?
 
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Parity symmetries cancelling out electromagnetic interactions of electrons? Atomic electron wave functions don't include weak force interactions Electrons are Leptons.
 
shjacks45 said:
Parity symmetries cancelling out electromagnetic interactions of electrons? Atomic electron wave functions don't include weak force interactions
Because it is getting neglected?
How much is an atomic wave function changed if electron-nucleus and electron-electron weak elastic scattering were included? These are tiny effects, but have different symmetries than the electromagnetic Hamiltonian.
 
Your “effects” would be so small that no one has ever observed them. You seem to be searching for a unicorn, like neutrino mass which experimental results give an upper limit of next to nothing. Proton must! decay, so far the lower limit for half life is the age of the universe. There must be “dark matter” or our theory is wrong. Mossbauer, UV, NMR, other physics tools long in use show no weak interaction with electrons. The weak force acts between nuclear particles not Leptons like the electron. Since inner electron waveform maxima is inside the nucleus, why aren’t electrons and protons becoming neutrons? (K-shell capture and positron emission radioactive decay show no fine structure (energy levels) indicating nuclear weak force interaction. ) Do you have a theory that indicates that electrons are affected by the weak force?
 
shjacks45 said:
The weak force acts between nuclear particles not Leptons like the electron.

That isn't true. Leptons feel the nuclear force.
 
Most interactions are special circumstances e.g. mediated by neutrino. Question was does nuclear weak force affect shell electrons q.v. atomic properties, and answer is it hasn’t been discovered yet, perhaps to be discovered by better instruments in the future. Some answers confuse EM force with nuclear forces. Perhaps a purer question would be what are the weak force interactions of electrons and neutrons.
 
Vanadium 50 said:
That isn't true. Leptons feel the nuclear force.
Leptons interact through the electroweak (and gravitational) interaction but not the strong interaction. Their color charge is 0. Of course via higher-order diagrams also strong-interaction physics enters (and often make trouble, as for quantities like the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron).
 
Sorry...the word "weak" disappeared. Leptons feel the weak nuclear force. Unlike the claim I was responding to.
 
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shjacks45 said:
The weak force acts between nuclear particles not Leptons like the electron. Since inner electron waveform maxima is inside the nucleus, why aren’t electrons and protons becoming neutrons? (K-shell capture and positron emission radioactive decay show no fine structure (energy levels) indicating nuclear weak force interaction. ) Do you have a theory that indicates that electrons are affected by the weak force?
Erm. Beta decay and electron capture are classical examples of weak interaction. And electron capture is NOT limited to K-shell - all s-orbitals qualify.
But apart from the inelastic electron capture, does the weak elastic scattering electron-nucleus have any effects through its different symmetry? Like breaking degeneracies which would be exact in pure electromagnetic Hamiltonian?
 

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