Parity Nonconservation in Atomic Phenomena

A new direction of research has recently emerged at the boundary between elementary particle physics and atomic spectroscopy: the investigation of weak interactions by optical methods. These studies have led to the discovery of parity nonconservation in atomic transitions, which has served as one of the first decisive confirmations of the unified model of electroweak interactions. In this integrated picture of the subject the author considers the effects of space-inversion and time-reversal violation in atoms, molecules and condensed matter. The book is intended for physicists, and for theoretical and experimental physicists specializing in atomic, nuclear and elementary particle physics.