PARITY CONSERVING GAMMA-ASYMMETRY IN N-P RADIATIVE-CAPTURE

The importance of iz-p radiative capture, utilizing polarized cold neu trons, as a means of measuring the weak pion coupling constant is revi ewed. Parity conserving processes of the form k(gamma).(s(n)Xk(n)) can contribute to the s(n).k(gamma) photon asymmetry in any such experime nt, if the al,paratus is not perfectly symmetric. For an incident labo ratory neutron energy of 0.003 eV a value of A(gamma)(PC)=0.67X10(-8) is obtained for two different potential models (Argonne AV14 and Nijme gen Reid93). Serving as an extreme test case, the Reid soft Core poten tial yields 0.61x10(-8), close to the result of the contemporary force s. Implications for extracting the weak pion coupling constant and for monitoring the beam polarization are discussed.