title: Chiral symmetry breaking in a reaction-diffusion system.
abstract: The emergence of order in far-from-equilibrium systems is often accompanied by the formation of spatially asymmetric patterns. About 30 years ago, a general mechanism to select a chiral solution by coupling a reaction-diffusion system to an external chiral electric field was proposed by Nicolis and Prigogine [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78, 659 (1981)]. However, no experimental or even numerical evidence in reaction-diffusion systems has been reported yet. Here we report a chiral symmetry-breaking phenomenon in a reaction-diffusion system coupled to a circularly polarized electric field (CPEF). Specifically, we show that the CPEF breaks the zero-rotation chiral symmetry between clockwise and counterclockwise spiral defects and that ordered spiral waves with preferred chirality arise from defect-mediated turbulence. The occurrence of such chiral symmetry breaking can be understood by the competition between spiral defects with opposite chirality.
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China.
authors.forename: Bing-Wei
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ling-Yun
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang