Energy-Averaged Parity Nonconserving Effect in Neutron Scattering from Heavy Nuclei

The effect of parity nonconservation (PNC) averaged over compound resonances is considered using a semiclassical approximation. We demonstrate that the result of averaging depends crucially on the properties of the residual strong nucleon-nucleon interaction. The way to elucidate this problem would be to investigate experimentally the PNC spin rotation ψ or the longitudinal polarization a of a nonmonochromatic neutron beam: E∼ΔE∼1 MeV. The magnitude of the effect can reach ψ∼a∼10^-5–10^-4 per mean free path.