CHIRALITY - A SUPERSELECTION RULE GENERATED BY THE MOLECULAR ENVIRONMENT

The superposition of left- and right-handed forms of a chiral molecule does not exist or is at least very unstable. Frequently, this instability is traced back to the coupling of the molecule to its environment, e.g. the radiation field or collisions with neighbor molecules. The situation is not completely clear, neither theoretically nor experimentally. Here, the theoretical aspects and consequences of the coupling (molecule<-- -->environment) are discussed.