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Electric Dipoles and Dipole Moment

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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.
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Chirality

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Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers

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Quantification of chirality based on electric toroidal monopole.

A Inda¹, R Oiwa², S Hayami¹

¹Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan.

The Journal of Chemical Physics

|May 13, 2024

Summary

Quantifying molecular chirality is now possible using electric toroidal monopoles. This quantum mechanical approach reveals chirality

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Area of Science:

Quantum chemistry
Molecular chirality
Condensed matter physics

Background:

Chirality is widespread in nature but difficult to quantify at the quantum level.
Existing methods lack microscopic descriptions for chirality.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose a quantum-mechanical method for quantifying molecular chirality.
To introduce the electric toroidal monopole as a chirality indicator.

Main Methods:

Quantum-mechanical analysis of a twisted methane molecule.
Evaluation of electronic wave functions.
Calculation of electric toroidal monopole expectation values.

Main Results:

Electric toroidal monopoles serve as a quantitative measure of chirality.
The sign of the electric toroidal monopole's expectation value determines chirality handedness.
Spin-dependent imaginary hopping between hydrogen atoms is crucial for chirality.

Conclusions:

The electric toroidal monopole provides a novel, microscopic approach to chirality quantification.
Chirality in twisted methane is primarily governed by spin-dependent interactions, not spin-orbit coupling.