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The chirality of a molecule that has a helical, propeller, or screw-shaped geometry is called helicity [5] or helical chirality. [6] [7] The screw axis or the D n, or C n principle symmetry axis is considered to be the axis of chirality. Some sources consider helical chirality to be a type of axial chirality, [7] and some do not.
To see an in depth discussion of the two with examples, which also shows how chirality and helicity approach the same thing as speed approaches that of light, click the link entitled "Chirality and Helicity in Depth" on the same page. History of science: parity violation; Helicity, Chirality, Mass, and the Higgs (Quantum Diaries blog)
Consider, for example, a baseball, pitched as a gyroball, so that its spin axis is aligned with the direction of the pitch. It will have one helicity with respect to the point of view of the players on the field, but would appear to have a flipped helicity in any frame moving faster than the ball.
Macroscopic examples of chirality are found in the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and all other groups of organisms. A simple example is the coiling direction of any climber plant, which can grow to form either a left- or right-handed helix. In anatomy, chirality is found in the imperfect mirror image symmetry of many kinds of animal bodies.
Quartz is an example from the mineral kingdom. Such noncentric materials are of interest for applications in nonlinear optics. In the areas of coordination chemistry and organometallic chemistry, chirality is pervasive and of practical importance.
Helicity is a pseudo-scalar quantity: it changes sign under change from a right-handed to a left-handed frame of reference; it can be considered as a measure of the handedness (or chirality) of the flow. Helicity is one of the four known integral invariants of the Euler equations; the other three are energy, momentum and angular momentum.
The two-component helicity eigenstates satisfy ^ (^) = (^) where are the Pauli matrices, ^ is the direction of the fermion momentum, = depending on whether spin is pointing in the same direction as ^ or opposite.
In statistical mechanics, the Zimm–Bragg model is a helix-coil transition model that describes helix-coil transitions of macromolecules, usually polymer chains. Most models provide a reasonable approximation of the fractional helicity of a given polypeptide; the Zimm–Bragg model differs by incorporating the ease of propagation (self-replication) with respect to nucleation.