Hadronic Parity Violation: A New View Through the Looking Glass

Abstract

Studies of the strangeness-changing hadronic weak interaction have produced a number of puzzles that have evaded a complete explanation within the Standard Model. Their origin may lie either in dynamics peculiar to weak interactions involving strange quarks or in more general aspects of the interplay between strong and weak interactions. In principle, studies of the strangeness-conserving hadronic weak interaction using parity-violating hadronic and nuclear observables provide a complementary window to this question. However, progress in this direction has been hampered by the lack of a suitable theoretical framework for interpreting hadronic parity violation measurements in a model-independent way. Recent work involving effective field theory ideas has led to the formulation of such a framework, simultaneously motivating the development of a number of new hadronic parity violation experiments in few-body systems. We review these recent developments and discuss the prospects and opportunities for further experimental and theoretical progress.