Parity violation  Fundamental Interactions  Introduction

Fundamental symmetries

Tiny violations of the fundamental symmetries may be a fingerprint of new interactions or particles. Low energy studies of feeble interactions provide access to virtual particles with masses in the TeV range. Precision studies in this field require powerful facilities with the most intense beams of muons, slow neutrons, protons, deuterons and radioactive nuclei. European laboratories like the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the Institute von Laue Langevin (ILL) or CERN's ISOLDE have created a basis for the forefront symmetry studies. In the following we shall not strive for completeness and review only part of this very active field.