Vacuum-Induced Symmetry Breaking of Chiral Enantiomer Formation in Chemical Reactions.

A material with symmetry breaking inside can transmit the symmetry breaking to its vicinity by vacuum electromagnetic fluctuations. Here, we show that vacuum quantum fluctuations proximate to a parity-symmetry-broken material can induce a chirality-dependent spectral shift of chiral molecules, resulting in a chemical reaction process that favors producing one chirality over the other. We calculate concrete examples and evaluate the chirality production rate with experimentally realizable parameters, showing the promise of selecting chirality with symmetry-broken vacuum quantum fluctuations.