Friday, July 4, 2003, 16:00
OSGA/E6
Prof. M. Quack, ETHZ
Abstract:
Fundamental symmetries of physics such as C,P,T are central for our
understanding of nature and have usually been tested in the framework of
high energy physics. In the lecture we shall outline the general
foundations and the consequences in the realm of molecular physics and
high resolution spectroscopy of chiral molecules. We shall present the
current status of the theory of molecular parity violation, where we
have recently discovered in new theoretical calculations order of
magnitude larger effects than previously accepted. We shall discuss the
role of these effects in the evolution of biomolecular
homochirality. Finally we shall present the current experimental
approaches to tests of molecular parity violation as well as the
possibilty of experimental tests of CPT invariance of ultrahigh
sensitivity by the spectroscopy of chiral molecules.
Background reading are two recent reviews, where further refences can
be found
M. Quack, Chimia 57 (2003) 147
M. Quack, Angew. Chem. Intl. ed. (English) 41 (2002) 4618
martin@quack.ch