English

Stability of Chiral States, Role of Intermolecular Interactions and Molecular Parity Violation

Chemical Physics 2011-12-23 v1 Statistical Mechanics Atomic Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We study the problem of stability of chiral states, also known as problem of chirality, within the framework of a two-dimensional approximation of a symmetric double-well potential. We show how the symmetry breaking of the potential due to the molecular parity violation can stop the tunneling in a coherent way, accordingly stabilize the chiral states. Then, we use the quantum Brownian motion within a linear Lindblad-type equation to model how the intermolecular interactions make the tunneling incoherent, thus inducing a racemization by dephasing. Finally, we investigate the normal physical conditions where the dephasing racemization does not suppress the effects of the molecular parity violation, accordingly the molecular parity violation may be observed experimentally.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1110.3545,
  title  = {Stability of Chiral States, Role of Intermolecular Interactions and Molecular Parity Violation},
  author = {Mohammad Bahrami and Afshin Shafiee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1110.3545},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

5 pages, 2 Figures