Search

The authors compare the structures and methods in the theory of causal fermion systems with approaches to fundamental physics based on division algebras, in particular the octonions. It is found that octonions and, more generally, tensor products of division algebras come up naturally to describe the symmetries of the vacuum configuration of a causal fermion system. This is achieved by associating the real and imaginary octonion basis elements with the neutrino and charged sectors of the vacuum fermionic projector, respectively. Conversely, causal fermion systems provide octonionic theories with spacetime structures and dynamical equations via the causal action principle. In this way, octonionic theories and causal fermion systems complement each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the Schwinger mechanism in QCD, which refers to the production of quark-antiquark pairs in the presence of a pure electric field strength eE, for a higher number of colors N c and flavors N f . Our unified formalism is based on the Schwinger-Dyson equations, a flavor-dependent symmetry-preserving vector-vector contact interaction model of quarks, and an optimal time regularization scheme. For fixed N c = 3 and N f = 2 , the dressed quark mass decreases as we increase eE, and near or above the pseudo-critical electric field e E c , the chiral symmetry is restored, and quarks become deconfined. The pair production rate Γ becomes stable and grows quickly above e E c . For fixed N c = 3 and upon increasing N f , the dynamically generated mass suppresses, and as a result, the e E c reduces to smaller values, and the pair production rate Γ tends to initiate and grow quickly for smaller values of e E c . In contrast, for fixed N f = 2 and upon increasing N c , the chiral symmetry is restored for larger and larger values of e E c ; and for N c ≥ 4 , the transition changes from smooth cross-over to the first order at some critical endpoint ( N c , p , e E c , p ). Consequently, the quark-antiquark production rate Γ requires higher values of e E c for stable and quick growth as we increase N c . Our findings are satisfactory and in agreement with the already predicted results for the pair production rate (for fixed N c = 3 and N f = 2 ) by other reliable effective models of QCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of external magnetic fields on monopoles, spectra of the overlap Dirac operator, instantons, and the mass of the eta-prime meson are examined by conducting lattice QCD simulations. The uniform external magnetic field is applied to gauge field configurations with flavor quarks. The bare quark masses are tuned in order to obtain the physical values of the pion mass and of the ratio. Standard configurations and configurations with an applied external magnetic field are generated in the color confinement and deconfinement phases. The intensity of the external magnetic field varies from to . To examine the influence of the external magnetic field on monopoles, we first calculate the monopole density, measure the lengths of the monopole loops, and compare them with the absolute value of the Polyakov loops. Next, using the generated configurations, we compute the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the overlap Dirac operator, which preserves exact chiral symmetry. To investigate how external magnetic fields affect the spectra of the overlap Dirac operator, we compute spectral densities, compare fluctuations of the eigenvalues of the overlap Dirac operator with the predictions of random matrix theory, and estimate the number of instantons and anti-instantons from the topological charges. In addition, we analyze smearing effects on these observables and chiral symmetry breaking. Finally, we calculate the decay constant of the pseudoscalar meson, the chiral condensate, and the square mass of the eta-prime meson using the eigenvalues and eigenvectors. We then extrapolate the numerical results in the chiral limit and demonstrate the effects of external magnetic fields on the extrapolation results. This article presents preliminary results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt is made to describe from first principles the large-scale structure of the confining vacuum in quantum chromodynamics. Starting from our previous variational studies of the SU(2) pure gauge theory in an external Abelian chromomagnetic field and extending Feynman's qualitative analysis in (2+1)-dimensional SU(2) gauge theory, we show that the SU(3) vacuum in three-space and one-time dimensions behaves like a disordered chromomagnetic condensate. Color confinement is assured by the presence of a mass gap together with the absence of color long-range correlations. We offer a clear physical picture for the formation of the flux tube between static quark charges that allows us to determine the color structure and the transverse profile of the flux-tube chromoelectric field. The transverse profile of the flux-tube chromoelectric field turns out to be in reasonable agreement with lattice data. We, also, show that our quantum vacuum allows for both the color and ordinary Meissner effect. We find that for massless quarks, the quantum vacuum can accommodate a finite non-zero density of fermion zero modes leading to the dynamical breaking of the chiral symmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quark-antiquark components of the U(3) lightest scalar meson nonet are investigated by considering the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with flavor-dependent coupling constants that were derived by considering (non-perturbative) gluon exchange. The strange quark effective mass ( M s * ) is varied such that the strangeness content of these scalar mesons can be analyzed further. The neutral states S 0, S 8, and S 3 are adopted as the most relevant quark-antiquark components, respectively, of the σ (500), f 0(980) and A 0 0 (980) mesons. As a result, the mass hierarchy between states S 0 and S 8, and K 0 * (700) − A 0 (980) mesons, can be, respectively, inverted and corrected for quite low values of the strange quark constituent mass. In addition, for some particular values of M s * , the masses of σ (500) and f 0(980) can also be obtained by considering the mixing coupling constant G 08. However, the masses of all the nine mesons are not described simultaneously in a self-consistent procedure and this goes along with the need of non-quark-antiquark states to completely describe their masses. A neutral-meson mixing matrix is defined and the leading mixing angle is found by fitting a correct value of the σ (500) − f 0(980) mass difference. Two different estimates for the strengths of the mixings A 0 0 → f 0 and f 0 → A 0 0 are proposed, leading to somewhat different behaviors. First by assuming leading transitions to intermediary flavor eigenstates and second by considering a dynamical evolution. The results may be in good agreement with experimental values from BESS-III depending on the value of the strange quark effective mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt is made to describe from first principles the large-scale structure of the confining vacuum in quantum chromodynamics. Starting from our previous variational studies of the SU(2) pure gauge theory in an external Abelian chromomagnetic field and extending Feynman’s qualitative analysis in (2+1)-dimensional SU(2) gauge theory, we show that the SU(3) vacuum in three-space and one-time dimensions behaves like a disordered chromomagnetic condensate. Color confinement is assured by the presence of a mass gap together with the absence of color long-range correlations. We offer a clear physical picture for the formation of the flux tube between static quark charges that allows us to determine the color structure and the transverse profile of the flux-tube chromoelectric field. The transverse profile of the flux-tube chromoelectric field turns out to be in reasonable agreement with lattice data. We, also, show that our quantum vacuum allows for both the color and ordinary Meissner effect. We find that for massless quarks, the quantum vacuum can accommodate a finite non-zero density of fermion zero modes leading to the dynamical breaking of the chiral symmetry.

A possibility of a pseudovector-type quark–antiquark condensed phase, which leads to a quark spin polarized phase, in the quark matter is investigated taking account of the vacuum effects leading to the chiral symmetry breaking by using the Nambu–Jona–Lasinio model. Also, possible Nambu–Goldstone modes on the pseudovector-type quark–antiquark condensate and the tensor-type quark–antiquark condensate, which also leads to the quark spin polarized phase, are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, novel achiral mesogens containing 4,4'-biphenyl central core connected on both sides through an ester function to 1-(4-(alkyloxy)phenyl)-1 H-[1,2,3]-triazolyl group have been synthesised and characterised. Different mesophases have been identified, with the appearance of both a periodic striped pattern and propeller-patterned droplets close to the transition between the nematic and the smectic-C phases. This periodic texture has been found to be independent of the geometry of the sample cell. These observations suggest a spontaneous symmetry breaking, which can result either from an intrinsic enantioselective self-sorting process with a chirality synchronisation mechanism, or from an extrinsic surface mechanism at the interface between the two phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The masses of hadrons in the vacuum, where the chiral symmetry is restored, and in the medium are generally different even when the changes in the order parameters of chiral symmetry are the same. Here, we first discuss the relation between the hadron masses and the chiral symmetry breaking in approaches based on operator product expansion (OPE). We then discuss what additional changes occur to the hadron masses when going from the chiral symmetry restored vacuum to nuclear medium and/or finite temperature. The work will highlight how we can identify the effects of chiral symmetry restoration from experimental observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a very simple linear evolutionary model based on distribution of protocells by total enantiomeric excess and without any mutual inhibition and show that such model can produce two species with values of total enantiomeric excess in each of the species approaching ± 1 when there is a global L ↔ D symmetry. We then consider a scenario when there is a small external global asymmetry factor, like weak interaction, and show that only one of the species remains in such a case, and that is the one, which is more efficient in replication. We perform an estimate of the time necessary to reach homochirality in such a model and show that reasonable assumptions lead to an estimate of around 300 thousand years plus or minus a couple of orders of magnitude. Despite this seemingly large time to reach homochirality, the model is immune to racemization because amino acids in the model follow the lifespan of the protocells rather than the time needed to reach homochirality. We show that not needing mutual inhibition in such evolutionary model is due to the difference in the topology of the spaces in which considered model and many known models of biological homochirality operate. Bifurcation-based models operate in disconnected zero-dimensional space (the space is just two points with enantiomeric excess equal - 1 and 1 ), whereas considered evolutionary model (in its continuous representation) operates in one-dimensional connected space, that is the whole interval between - 1 and 1 of total enantiomeric excess. We then proceed with the analysis of the replication process in non-homochiral environment and show that replication errors (the probability to attach an amino acid of wrong chirality) result in a smooth decrease of replication time when total enantiomeric excess of the replicated structure moves away from zero. We show that this decrease in replication time is sufficient for considered model to work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that the holographic Schrödinger equation of light-front chiral QCD, together with the 't Hooft equation of (1+1)-dimensional QCD in the large Nc limit, can simultaneously describe pion spectroscopy as well as the pion decay constant, charge radius, electromagnetic form factor, photon-to-pion transition form factor, Parton Distribution Function (PDF) and Distribution Amplitude (DA). Furthermore, the chiral-limit constraints, as encoded in the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner (GMOR) relation, are satisfied.

The lightest meson, the pion, features two faces – one is the elementary Goldstone boson of QCD and the other is the structured bound state of quarks and gluons. To accommodate both in a single light-front wave function in the valence space, we obtain a sum rule by analyzing the conserved axial-vector current and the general structures of the wave functions. Using an analytic model motivated by holography, we show this sum rule is consistent with requirements of chiral symmetry breaking in AdS/QCD. Within this model, we find a remarkable feature of the pion, namely that the density is mostly uniform inside its radius; furthermore, we obtain good agreement with the experimental pion form factor at spacelike momenta.

From the recent empirical discovery of the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE), the interaction of the particle with spin–orbit coupling (SOC) plays an essential role in the cause of the QAHE, which includes three terms: external, internal, and chiral symmetric terms. Then, the non-Abelian quantum field theory was adopted to analyze and prove the conjecture on the causes that can lead to the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE). The spontaneously topological chiral symmetry breaking is the main contribution to the FQHE, which also includes two terms: the hopping of sublattice and Coulomb energy by the interaction of many-body particles. More generally, this exciton possesses an intermediate characteristic between the Wannier regimes and displays a peculiar two-dimensional wavefunction in the three-dimensional FQHE states. Finally, a bilayer three-dimensional model is proposed to implement the FQHE on the lattice by incorporating ferromagnetic dopants into three-dimensional topological insulative thin films. This study theoretically predicts the FQHE on the basis of other reports that have experimentally verified the rationality of the proposed model in magnetic topological insulators.

To understand chiral symmetry breaking on the molecular level, we developed a method to efficiently investigate reaction kinetics of single molecules. The model systems include autocatalysis as well as a reaction cascade to gain further insight into the prebiotic origin of homochirality. The simulated reactions start with a substrate and only a single catalyst molecule, and the occurrence of symmetry breaking was examined for its degree of dependence on randomness. The results demonstrate that interlocking processes, which e.g., form catalysts, autocatalytic systems, or reaction cascades that build on each other and lead to a kinetic acceleration, can very well amplify a statistically occurring symmetry breaking. These results suggest a promising direction for the experimental implementation and identification of such processes, which could have led to a shift out of thermodynamic equilibrium in the emergence of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An N‐Fmoc and C‐tBu‐protected glutamate (1) bearing a phenanthrene moiety at the side residue crystalizes and gels to afford hetero‐ and homochiral assemblies, respectively, depending on its optical purity or solvent. When a non‐stoichiometric mixture of enantiomers of 1 in acetonitrile was treated with the conditions that leave a mixture of gel and supernatant, it exhibited the self‐disproportionation of enantiomers with an enrichment of the major enantiomer in the gel. Under similar conditions, a racemic mixture of 1 also provided a gel/supernatant mixture, where the gel was enriched in either of L or D‐form of 1 stochastically as the result of macroscopic chiral symmetry breaking in its gelation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the phase structures of strong interaction matter is an active frontier in nuclear physics research currently, and it will provide crucial insights into heavy-ion collision experiments as well as neutron star observations. Most studies in this area focus on the influence of extremely high temperatures and baryon densities on matter properties, especially pertaining to phase transitions such as the chiral symmetry breaking and color superconductivity. Recent experimental and theoretical studies reported that in non-central heavy-ion collisions, systems carry a large initial angular momentum that becomes very strong vorticity fields in the bulk fluid. This has thus introduced several new questions regarding the properties of strong interaction matter under vorticity fields, and have led to many novel results. Thermal field theory calculations based on rotating frame and mean-field approximation have been developed to study various phase transitions under rotation, such as chiral symmetry breaking, color superconductivity and superfluidity at high isospin asymmetry. The results have demonstrated important impacts of vorticity fields on the phase boundaries of these transitions, and have also revealed nontrivial new phase structures of strong interaction matter under rotation. A new dimension of the usual QCD phase diagram has been unveiled. The study of rotation-induced phase transition extends phase transition research to a broader space. There remain more unexplored issues that merit further study.

The masses of hadrons in the vacuum, where the chiral symmetry is restored, and in the medium are generally different even when the changes in the order parameters of chiral symmetry are the same. Here, we first discuss the relation between the hadron masses and the chiral symmetry breaking in approaches based on operator product expansion (OPE). We then discuss what additional changes occur to the hadron masses when going from the chiral symmetry restored vacuum to nuclear medium and/or finite temperature. The work will highlight how we can identify the effects of chiral symmetry restoration from experimental observations.

We present an analytically solvable 3D light-front Hamiltonian model for hadrons that extends light-front holography by including finite mass quarks and a longitudinal confinement term. We propose that the model is suitable as an improved analytic approximation to QCD at a low resolution scale. We demonstrate that it preserves desired Lorentz symmetries and it produces improved agreement with the experimental mass spectroscopy and other properties of the light mesons. Importantly, the model also respects chiral symmetry and the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation.

The surface chirality was investigated in magnetoelectrodeposition (MED) of copper films on micro-disc electrodes with the diameters of 100 and 25 μm. The MED was conducted in the magnetic fields of 1-5 T, which were parallel or antiparallel to the ionic currents. In the case of 100 μm-electrodes, the MED films prepared in 2 and 3 T exhibited odd chirality for the magnetic field polarity, as expected in the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) vortex model. However, the films prepared in the higher fields of 4 and 5 T exhibited breaking of odd chirality. In the case of the 25 μm-electrode, the broken odd chirality was observed in 2 and 3 T. These results indicate that the strong vertical MHD flows induce the breaking of odd chirality. The mapping of chiral symmetry on the axes of the magnetic field and electrode diameter demonstrate that the odd chirality could be easily broken by the fluctuation of micro-MHD vortices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All biological systems are composed of molecules of a single chirality. Although many different scenarios can lead to chiral symmetry breaking, the transmission of the absolute configuration of one compound to another one remains challenging. We here demonstrate that during crystallization‐induced chiral symmetry breaking by Viedma ripening, a cascade of different and counteracting processes can occur: solid‐solution formation and dissolution inhibition favor symmetry breaking towards the same absolute configuration, while enantioselective growth inhibition favors symmetry breaking towards the opposite absolute configuration. These insights offer a new playground for controlling symmetry breaking processes that are of fundamental and practical importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analytically evaluate a unitary matrix integral which appears in the low-energy limit of two-color QCD at finite chemical potential. The result is expressed as a pfaffian. We illustrate its application to the GSE-GUE crossover in random matrix theory.

We review some recent developments about strongly interacting relativistic Fermi theories in three spacetime dimensions. These models realize the asymptotic safety scenario and are used to describe the low-energy properties of Dirac materials in condensed matter physics. We begin with a general discussion of the symmetries of multi-flavor Fermi systems in arbitrary dimensions. Then we review known results about the critical flavor number Ncrit of Thirring models in three dimensions. Only models with a flavor number below Ncrit show a phase transition from a symmetry-broken strong-coupling phase to a symmetric weak-coupling phase. Recent simulations with chiral fermions show that Ncrit is smaller than previously extracted with various non-perturbative methods. Our simulations with chiral SLAC fermions reveal that for four-component flavors Ncrit=0.80(4). This means that all reducible Thirring models with Nr=1,2,3,… show no phase transition with order parameter. Instead, we discover footprints of phase transitions without order parameter. These new transitions are probably smooth and could be used to relate the lattice Thirring models to Thirring models in the continuum. For a single irreducible flavor, we provide previously unpublished values for the critical couplings and critical exponents.

Propagation of homochirality plays a crucial role in the discussion on the origin of life. We investigated the role of structurally related enantiopure additives in chiral symmetry breaking during reactive crystallizations. We demonstrate that symmetry breaking can be driven towards the same absolute configuration as the additive if this additive forms an enantiospecific solid solution with the racemate. We observe two antagonistic processes: enantiospecific growth inhibition directs symmetry breaking to the opposite enantiomer following "the rule of reversal", and enantiospecific solid solution formation that favors homochiral outcome. During continuous grinding, contributions of solid solution formation override contributions of enantiospecific growth inhibition, directing the process towards the absolute configuration of the additive. Collectively, our findings offer a potential mechanism for the propagation of homochirality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnetic field dependence of chiral surface formation was investigated in magnetoelectrodeposition (MED) and magnetoelectrochemical etching (MEE) of copper films. The MED and MEE was conducted in magnetic fields of up to 5 T, which were parallel or antiparallel to the ionic currents. The MED films prepared in high magnetic fields of 5 and 3 T exhibited odd chirality for magnetic field polarity, as expected on the basis of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) vortex model. However, the films prepared in the lower fields of 2.5 and 2 T exhibited breaking of odd chirality. Similar magnetic field dependence was observed in the surface chirality of MEE films. These results imply that the fluctuation in the self-organized state of micro-MHD vortices is responsible for the breaking of odd chirality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chiral symmetry breaking in far from equilibrium systems with large number of amino acids and peptides, like a prebiotic Earth, was considered. It was shown that if organic catalysts were abundant, then effective averaging of enantioselectivity would prohibit any symmetry breaking in such systems. It was further argued that non-linear (catalytic) reactions must be very scarce (called the abundance parameter) and catalysts should work on small groups of similar reactions (called the similarity parameter) in order to chiral symmetry breaking have a chance to occur. Models with 20 amino acids and peptide lengths up to three were considered. It was shown that there are preferred ranges of abundance and similarity parameters where the symmetry breaking can occur in the models with catalytic synthesis / catalytic destruction / both catalytic synthesis and catalytic destruction. It was further shown that models with catalytic synthesis and catalytic destruction statistically result in a substantially higher percentage of the models where the symmetry breaking can occur in comparison to the models with just catalytic synthesis or catalytic destruction. It was also shown that when chiral symmetry breaking occurs, then concentrations of some amino acids, which collectively have some mutually beneficial properties, go up, whereas the concentrations of the ones, which don't have such properties, go down. An open source code of the whole system was provided to ensure that the results can be checked, repeated, and extended further if needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nucleon is naturally viewed as a bipartite system of valence spin — defined by its non-vanishing chiral charge — and non-valence or sea spin. The sea spin can be traced over to give a reduced density matrix, and it is shown that the resulting entanglement entropy acts as an order parameter of chiral symmetry breaking in the nucleon. In the large- N c limit, the entanglement entropy vanishes and the valence spin accounts for all of the nucleon spin, while in the limit of maximal entanglement entropy, the nucleon loses memory of the valence spin and consequently has spin dominated by the sea. The nucleon state vector in the chiral basis, fit to low-energy data, gives a valence spin content consistent with experiment and lattice QCD determinations, and has large entanglement entropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attrition‐enhanced deracemization of two axially chiral nicotinamides, crystallizing as a conglomerate of a P21 crystal system, was performed. N,N‐Dialkylnicotinamides with substituents on the 2‐ and 4‐positions of the pyridine ring exhibited stable axial chirality due to rotationally restricted scaffolds for the Ar–C(=O)N bond. Crystallization of the racemic mixtures from the melt or attrition‐enhanced deracemization led to the chiral breaking of symmetry to give 95–96 % ee of enantiomorphic crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A few years ago, the use of standard functional manipulations was demonstrated to imply an unexpected property satisfied by the fermionic Green's functions of QCD, and called effective locality. This feature of QCD is non-perturbative as it results from a full integration of the gluonic degrees of freedom. In this paper, at eikonal and quenching approximation at least, the relation of effective locality to dynamical chiral symmetry breaking is examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a one-flavor NJL model with a finite temperature, chemical potential, and external magnetic field, the self-energy of the quark propagator contains more condensates besides the vacuum condensate. We use Fierz identity to identify the self-energy and propose a self-consistent analysis to simplify it. It turns out that these condensates are related to the chiral separation effect and spin magnetic moment.

Abstract Generalized parton distributions are investigated within a holographic approach where the string modes in the fifth dimension describe the nucleon in a bottom–up or AdS/QCD framework. The aim is to bring the AdS/QCD results in the realm of phenomenology in order to extract consequences and previsions. Two main aspects are studied: (i) the role of the confining potential needed for breaking conformal invariance and introducing confinement (both: classic soft-wall and recent infra-red potentials are investigated); (ii) the extension of the predicted GPDs to the entire range of off-forward kinematics by means of double distributions. Higher Fock states are included describing the nucleon as a superposition of three valence quarks and quark–antiquark pairs and gluons.

Ferromagnetic ferrofluids are synthetic materials consisting of magnetic nanoplatelets dispersed in an isotropic fluid. Their main characteristics are the formation of stable magnetic domains and the presence of macroscopic magnetization even in the absence of a magnetic field. Here, the authors report on the experimental observation of spontaneous stripe formation in a ferromagnetic ferrofluid in the presence of an oscillating external magnetic field. The striped structure is identified as elongated magnetic domains, which exhibit reorientation upon reversal of the magnetic field. The stripes are oriented perpendicular to the magnetic field and are separated by alternating flow lanes. The velocity profile is measured using a space-time correlation technique that follows the motion of the thermally excited fluctuations in the sample. The highest velocities are found in the depleted regions between individual domains and reach values up to several µm s -1 . The fluid in adjacent lanes moves in the opposite directions despite the applied magnetic field being uniform. The formation of bidirectional flow lanes can be explained by alternating rotation of magnetic nanoparticles in neighboring stripes, which indicates spontaneous breaking of the chiral symmetry in the sample., (© 2023 The Authors. Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The possibility of the formation of a local parity breaking (LPB) in a quark-hadron medium is examined as a result of chiral symmetry violation, i.e., the appearance of difference between the average densities of right- and left-handed quarks in the fireball after heavy-ion collisions (HIC). Using the effective meson Lagrangian motivated by QCD extended to the chiral medium the properties of light scalar and pseudoscalar mesons are analyzed. It is establish that exotic decays of scalar mesons arise due to mixing of and vacuum states in the presence of chiral imbalance. The pion electromagnetic formfactor obtains a parity-odd supplement which generates a photon polarization asymmetry in pion polarizability. We conjecture that the above-mentioned properties of LPB can be revealed in experiments on LHC, RHIC, FAIR and NICA accelerators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic enantioselective crystallization enabled the chiral symmetry breaking of two spiropyrans and one spirooxazine. The three spiro compounds afforded racemic conglomerate crystals, and easily racemized in alcoholic solution without irradiation. Optically pure enantiomorphic crystals were obtained by vapor‐diffusion crystallization or attrition‐enhanced deracemization (Viedma ripening). Their absolute configurations were determined by single‐crystal X‐ray analysis and each enantiomorphic crystal was correlated with its solid‐state circular dichroism (CD) spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnetic field dependence of chiral surface formation was investigated in magnetoelectrodeposition (MED) and magnetoelectrochemical etching (MEE) of copper films. The MED and MEE was conducted in magnetic fields of up to 5 T, which were parallel or antiparallel to the ionic currents. The MED films prepared in high magnetic fields of 5 and 3 T exhibited odd chirality for magnetic field polarity, as expected on the basis of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) vortex model. However, the films prepared in the lower fields of 2.5 and 2 T exhibited breaking of odd chirality. Similar magnetic field dependence was observed in the surface chirality of MEE films. These results imply that the fluctuation in the self-organized state of micro-MHD vortices is responsible for the breaking of odd chirality.

Photomechanical materials exhibit mechanical motion in response to light as an external stimulus. They have attracted much attention because they can convert light energy directly to mechanical energy, and their motions can be controlled without any physical contact. This review paper introduces the photomechanical motions of photoresponsive molecular crystals, especially bending and twisting behaviors, from the viewpoint of symmetry breaking. The bending (right–left symmetry breaking) and twisting (chiral symmetry breaking) of photomechanical crystals are based on both intrinsic and extrinsic factors like molecular orientation in the crystal and illumination conditions. The ability to design and control this symmetry breaking will be vital for generating new science and new technological applications for organic crystalline materials.

In this short article, we present a study of theoretical model of a photochemically driven, closed chemical system in which spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking occurs. By making all the steps in the reaction elementary reaction steps, we obtained the rate of entropy production in the system and studied its behavior below and above the transition point. Our results show that the transition is similar to a second-order phase transition with rate of entropy production taking the place of entropy and the radiation intensity taking the place of the critical parameter: the steady-state entropy production, when plotted against the incident radiation intensity, has a change in its slope at the critical point. Above the critical intensity, the slope decreases, showing that asymmetric states have lower entropy than the symmetric state.