Radiative corrections to parity nonconservation in atoms and test of the standard model

Recent progress in calculations of QED radiative corrections to parity nonconservation in atoms is reviewed. The QED vacuum polarization, the self-energy corrections and the vertex corrections are shown to be described very reliably by different methods used by different groups. All new calculations have recently converged to very close final results. Each separate radiative correction is very large, above 1% for heavy atoms, but, having different signs, they partly compensate each other. Our results for the radiative corrections for all atoms are presented. The corrections are -0.5% for Cs-133 and -0.70% for Tl-205, Pb-208 and Bi-209. The result for Cs-133 reconciles the most accurate atomic experimental data for the 6s-7s parity nonconservation amplitude in Cs-133 Of Wood et al (1997 Science 275 1759) with the standard model.