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Energetic stabilization of d-camphor via weak neutral currents
P Lazzeretti1, R Zanasi, F Faglioni
1Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi, via G. Campi 183, 41100 Modena, Italy. lazzeret@unimo.it
Abstract:
It is shown via a series of numerical tests on the camphor molecule, C10H16O, that the naturally occurring d-enantiomer is energetically stabilized with respect to its mirror image by electroweak force. The calculated energy difference between enantiomers, about 1.5 x 10(-19) hartree, is roughly eight orders of magnitude smaller than the upper bound suggested by available spectroscopic investigations on the frequency of a spectroscopic transition. However, such a difference is about ten times larger than previous estimates of parity-violating energy contributions reported in the literature for other chiral molecules, which makes the idea of electroweak stabilization of one enantiomer more reliable than expected before.