Hund's paradox and the collisional stabilization of chiral molecules

Abstract

We identify the dominant collisional decoherence mechanism which serves to stabilize and super-select the configuration states of chiral molecules. A high-energy description of this effect is compared to the results of the exact molecular scattering problem, obtained by solving the coupled-channel equations. It allows to predict the experimental conditions for observing the collisional suppression of the tunneling dynamics between the left-handed and the right-handed configuration of D2S2 molecules.

4 pages, 1 figure; v3:corresponds to published version

References in corpus (2)

• Generalized Stern-Gerlach Effect for Chiral Molecules
• Monitoring approach to open quantum dynamics using scattering theory

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Progress toward a first observation of parity violation in chiral molecules by high-resolution laser spectroscopy
• Effect of molecular rotation on enantioseparation
• Cosmological Constant from Decoherence
• Cold collisions of polyatomic molecular radicals with S-state atoms in a magnetic field: An ab initio study of He + CH2(X) collisions