Department of Physics Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
10-1-1999
Publication Source
Reviews of Modern Physics
Volume
71
Issue
5
Start Page
1745
Last Page
1757
DOI
10.1103/RevModPhys.71.1745
Abstract
The fundamental issues of symmetry related to chirality are discussed and applied to simple situations relevant to liquid crystals. The authors show that any chiral measure of a geometric object is a pseudoscalar (invariant under proper rotations but changing sign under improper rotations) and must involve three-point correlations that only come into play when the molecule has at least four atoms. In general, a molecule is characterized by an infinite set of chiral parameters. The authors illustrate the fact that these parameters can have differing signs and can vanish at different points as a molecule is continuously deformed into its mirror image. From this it is concluded that handedness is not an absolute concept but depends on the property being observed. Within a simplified model of classical interactions, the chiral parameter of the constituent molecules that determines the macroscopic pitch of cholesterics is identified.
Recommended Citation
Harris, A., Kamien, R. D., & Lubensky, T. C. (1999). Molecular Chirality and Chiral Parameter. Reviews of Modern Physics, 71 (5), 1745-1757. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.71.1745
Date Posted: 21 August 2015
This document has been peer reviewed.