Detection of parity violation in chiral molecules by external tuning of electroweak optical activity

Abstract

A proposal is made to measure the parity-violating energy difference between enantiomers of chiral molecules by modifying the dynamics of the two-state system using an external chiral field, in particular, circularly polarized light. The intrinsic molecular parity-violating energy could be compensated by this external chiral field, with the subsequent change in the optical activity. From the observation of changes in the time-averaged optical activity of a sample with initial chiral purity and minimized environment effects, the value of the intrinsic parity-violating energy could be extracted. A discussion is made on the feasibility of this measurement. © 2009 The American Physical Society.