Recent experimental and theoretical developments towards the observation of parity violation (PV) effects in molecules by spectroscopy

Abstract

Parity violation (PV) at the molecular level is known to be responsible for a tiny energy difference between the two enantiomers of a chiral molecule. This parity violation energy difference (PVED) has not yet been detected by experiment. In the last few years, the search for PV effects in molecules has made important steps ahead for several reasons. On one hand, very accurate infra-red spectroscopy measurements were performed by metrologists on bromochlorofluoromethane (CHFClBr) with a 10 Hz accuracy, which so far is the most precise. On the other hand, relativistic calculations were used for the evaluation of ΔE_PV allowing for a screening of favorable molecules for future measurements. The synthesis of such chiral molecules with high parity violation effects is currently being investigated. In memory of Professor Jean-Bernard Robert.