Chemical geometrodynamics: physical fields can cause asymmetric synthesis.
This paper presents theoretical arguments that suggest that chiral combinations of physical fields which can induce motion of elementary particles or molecular systems can in principle cause asymmetric synthesis. The theory is founded on the application of parity and time reversal operators to chiral dynamical systems. The motion of these systems induced by a chiral set of physical fields is shown not to be invariant on parity and time reflection. The relationship between tetrahedral dissymmetry and helical dissymmetry is analyzed in terms of the moments of inertia of a tetrahedrally dissymmetric rotor rotating around each of the four bond axes. The magnitude of anticipated enantiomeric excess which would result from conducting a prochiral chemical reaction in a chiral set of physical fields is estimated to be very small, parts per million or less, for virtually all sets of readily accessible physical fields. The results of experiments in which prochiral chemical reactions were conducted in a sealed tube which was spinning perpendicular or parallel to the earth's surface, are reviewed as are experiments in which prochiral chemical reactions were conducted in intense oriented magnetic fields. Enantiomeric recognition may have been one of the principal mechanisms for amplifying small differences in the rates of a given prochiral chemical reaction.
D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002621:Chemistry; D008280:Magnetics; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009904:Optical Rotation; D013237:Stereoisomerism