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Can vacuum select chirality in chemical reactions?

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posted on 2023-01-10, 03:20 authored by Yanzhe Ke, Zhigang Song, Qing-Dong Jiang
A material with symmetry breaking inside can transmit the symmetry breaking to its vicinity by vacuum electromagnetic fluctuations. The vacuum in proximate to a symmetry-broken material is referred as its quantum atmosphere. Here, we show that a parity-symmetry-broken quantum atmosphere can induce a chirality-dependent shift of the ground-state energy of a chiral molecule, resulting in a chemical reaction process that favors producing one chirality over the other. We calculate concrete examples and evaluate the chirality production rate, showing the promise of quantum atmospheric selectivity.

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