Parity violation and chiral symmetry breaking of a racemic mixture.
The chiral symmetry breaking of a racemic mixture by the parity violating weak interaction is considered. Particular attention is given to a mechanism recently proposed by Mason and Tranter whereby the weak neutral current interaction in chiral molecules leads to the differential absorption of unpolarized light by D vs. L enantiomers. After extending the usual theory of optical activity to include weak neutral currents, it is found that for spin-allowed transitions in typical organic molecules the weak photoabsorption asymmetry is much smaller than the value obtained using the reasoning of Mason and Tranter. Upon making a comparison with other mechanisms, it is concluded that differential radiolysis by beta electrons is likely to produce the largest symmetry breaking effect by the weak interaction.
D001610:Beta Particles; D004563:Electrochemistry; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009904:Optical Rotation; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013816:Thermodynamics