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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.

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...

Potential Due to a Polarized Object

Potential Due to a Polarized Object

A neutral atom consists of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by a negatively charged electron cloud. When placed in an external electric field, the external electric force pulls the electrons and nucleus apart, opposite to the intrinsic attraction between the nucleus and the electrons. The opposing forces balance each other with a slight shift between the center of masses of the nucleus and the electron cloud, resulting in a polarized atom. On the other hand, a few molecules, like water,...

Induced Electric Dipoles

Induced Electric Dipoles

A permanent electric dipole orients itself along an external electric field. This rotation can be quantified by defining the potential energy because the external torque does work in rotating it. Then, the potential energy is minimum at the parallel configuration and maximum at the antiparallel configuration. While the former is a stable equilibrium, the latter is an unstable equilibrium.
Since the absolute value of potential energy holds no physical meaning, its zero value can be chosen as per...

Electric Dipoles and Dipole Moment

Electric Dipoles and Dipole Moment

Consider two charges of equal magnitude but opposite signs. If they cannot be separated by an external electric field, the system is called a permanent dipole. For example, the water molecule is a dipole, making it a good solvent.
Theoretically, studying electric dipoles leads to understanding why the resultant electric forces around us are weak. Since electric forces are strong, remnant net charges are rare. Hence, the interaction between dipoles helps us understand electrical interactions in...

¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons

¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons

Replacing each alpha-hydrogen in chloroethane by bromine (or a different functional group) yields a pair of enantiomers. Such protons are called prochiral or enantiotopic and are related by a mirror plane. Enantiotopic protons are chemically equivalent in an achiral environment. Because most proton NMR spectra are recorded using achiral solvents, enantiotopic hydrogens yield a single signal.
In chiral compounds such as 2-butanol, replacing the methylene hydrogens at C3 produces a pair of...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 2, 2025

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Published on: March 3, 2017

Chiral Anomaly and Dynamos from Inhomogeneous Chemical Potential Fluctuations.

Jennifer Schober¹, Igor Rogachevskii^2,3, Axel Brandenburg^3,4,5,6

¹Institute of Physics, Laboratory of Astrophysics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland.

Physical Review Letters

|February 23, 2024

Summary

Spatial fluctuations in chemical potential can trigger a chiral dynamo instability. This process generates magnetic turbulence and large-scale magnetic fields in relativistic plasmas, relevant to early universe cosmology and astrophysics.

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Area of Science:

Particle Physics
Plasma Physics
Astrophysics
Cosmology

Background:

The chiral anomaly in particle physics is crucial in relativistic plasmas.
It influences phenomena in the early Universe, neutron stars, heavy-ion collisions, and quantum materials.
An imbalance in chiral fermion densities can lead to magnetic instability.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the origins of magnetic instability in relativistic plasmas.
To explore the role of chemical potential fluctuations in generating magnetic fields.
To understand the chiral dynamo instability and its consequences.

Main Methods:

Direct numerical simulations of relativistic plasmas.
Analysis of spatial fluctuations in chemical potential.
Modeling of chiral anomaly effects and magnetic field generation.

Main Results:

Spatial fluctuations of chemical potential alone can induce a chiral dynamo instability.
This instability drives magnetically driven turbulence.
A large-scale magnetic field is generated via the magnetic α effect.

Conclusions:

Chemical potential fluctuations are a viable mechanism for generating magnetic fields in relativistic plasmas.
The chiral dynamo effect provides a pathway for magnetic field amplification.
Findings have implications for understanding magnetic phenomena in extreme astrophysical environments.