Martínez-Gil, D.; Bargueño, P.; Miret-Artés, S. The Interplay between Tunneling and Parity Violation in Chiral Molecules. Entropy2024, 26, 456.
Martínez-Gil, D.; Bargueño, P.; Miret-Artés, S. The Interplay between Tunneling and Parity Violation in Chiral Molecules. Entropy 2024, 26, 456.
Martínez-Gil, D.; Bargueño, P.; Miret-Artés, S. The Interplay between Tunneling and Parity Violation in Chiral Molecules. Entropy2024, 26, 456.
Martínez-Gil, D.; Bargueño, P.; Miret-Artés, S. The Interplay between Tunneling and Parity Violation in Chiral Molecules. Entropy 2024, 26, 456.
Abstract
In this brief review, the concepts of quantum tunneling and parity violation are introduced in the context of chiral molecules. A particle moving in a double well potential provides a good model to study the behavior of chiral molecules, where the left well and right well represent the L and R enantiomers, respectively. If the model considers the quantum behavior of matter, the concept of quantum tunneling emerges, giving place to a stereomutation dynamics between left- and right-handed chiral molecules. Parity-violating interactions, like the electroweak one, can be also considered, making possible the existence of an energy difference between the L and R enantiomers, the so-called parity-violating energy difference (PVED). Here we provide a brief account of some theoretical methods usually employed to calculate this PVED, also commenting on relevant experiments devoted to experimentally detect the aforementioned PVED in chiral molecules.
Keywords
tunneling, chiral molecules, parity violation
Subject
Physical Sciences, Theoretical Physics
Copyright:
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