Towards a Modern Theory of Chiralization

Abstract

The Modern Theory of Polarization, which rigorously defines the spontaneous electric polarization of a periodic solid and provides a recipe for its computation in electronic structure codes, transformed our understanding of ferroelectricity and related dielectric properties. Here we call for the development of an analogous Modern Theory of Chiralization. We review earlier attempts to quantify chirality, highlight the fundamental and practical developments that a modern theory would facilitate, and suggest possible promising routes to its establishment.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Cartoon illustrating the analogy between a) magnetic dipole moments and magnetization, b) electric dipole moments and polarization and c) the as-yet unknown local quantity for chirality, which will provide the bulk chiralization.
• Figure 2: Cartoon of the anticipated double well potential describing the energy of a ferrochiral phase transition as a function of the chiralization, $\chi$, between the high-temperature, high-symmetry achiral phase ($\chi=0)$ and the low-temperature, low-symmetry chiral structures at the energy minima.