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Updated: Jul 5, 2025

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
Published on: August 18, 2017
Chiral knife edge: A simplified rattleback to illustrate spin inversion
Eduardo A Jagla1, Alberto G Rojo2
1Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica and Instituto Balseiro CNEA, CONICET, UNCUYO Avenida E. Bustillo 9500 S. C. de Bariloche, Argentina.
Abstract:
We present the chiral knife edge rattleback, an alternative version of previously presented systems that exhibit spin inversion. We offer a full treatment of the model using qualitative arguments, analytical solutions as well as numerical results. We treat a reduced, one-mode problem which not only contains the essence of the physics of spin inversion, but that also exhibits an unexpected connection to the Chaplygin sleigh, providing insight into the nonholonomic structure of the problem. We also present exact results for the full problem together with estimates of the time between inversions that agree with previous results in the literature.
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