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Chirality

Chirality

Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...

Chirality in Nature

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid.

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...

Prochirality

Prochirality

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...

Radical Halogenation: Stereochemistry

Radical Halogenation: Stereochemistry

Stereochemistry is the study of the different spatial arrangements of atoms in a given molecule. The stereochemistry of radical halogenations can be understood from three different situations:
Halogenation to form a new chiral center:

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A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Chiral Dark Sector.

Raymond T Co¹, Keisuke Harigaya¹, Yasunori Nomura¹

¹Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA and Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.

Physical Review Letters

|March 25, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

We propose a simple dark sector model where dark matter is composite. This model offers distinct predictions for dark matter detection experiments and particle colliders.

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Area of Science:

Particle Physics
Cosmology
Dark Matter Physics

Background:

Dark matter remains a significant mystery in cosmology.
Composite dark matter models offer compelling explanations for dark matter properties.
Accidental symmetries can ensure the stability of dark matter particles.

Purpose of the Study:

To present a simple and natural dark sector model for composite dark matter.
To explore the phenomenology arising from hidden strong dynamics and kinetic mixing.
To investigate the detectability of dark matter and new particles at colliders and direct detection experiments.

Main Methods:

Introducing a gauge group with an Abelian symmetry U(1)_D for kinetic mixing.
Utilizing accidental symmetries to ensure dark matter particle stability.
Analyzing two distinct scenarios based on dark pion mass: massive (dark matter) and light (dark radiation).

Main Results:

The model features few free parameters, with a unique mass scale set by the confinement scale.
In the massive dark pion scenario, dark matter is a mixture of dark pion and dark baryon, detectable via direct/indirect experiments.
The U(1)_D gauge boson is discoverable at the Large Hadron Collider.
In the light dark pion scenario, dark pion acts as dark radiation, with signals correlated to dark baryon detection.

Conclusions:

This simple composite dark matter model exhibits rich and distinctive phenomenology.
The model provides testable predictions for dark matter detection and collider experiments.
The interplay between dark matter and dark radiation offers unique observational signatures.