| Of the four fundamental forces, only the weak force fails to conserve parity. When polarized neutrons are captured by a nucleus, the momentum of the emitted gamma rays is correlated with the spin of the neutron. This asymmetry offers an opportunity to directly measure the strength of the weak interaction within the nucleus, which otherwise is obscured by the much larger strong force. The gamma ray distribution is of the form 1 + A cos&thetas;, where A is the coefficient of interest, &thetas; is the angle between the spin of the neutron and the momentum of the emitted gamma ray, and A cos&thetas; together is the parity violating part. The value of A is different for each nucleus and is dependent on the nuclear structure as well as the weak coupling. This thesis presents the results of the measurement of A for 35Cl, 113Cd, and 139La. The relationship to theory will be discussed. |
