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An object that is not chiral is said to be achiral. A chiral object and its mirror image are said to be enantiomorphs. The word chirality is derived from the Greek χείρ (cheir), the hand, the most familiar chiral object; the word enantiomorph stems from the Greek ἐναντίος (enantios) 'opposite' + μορφή (morphe) 'form'.
The simplest chiral knot is the trefoil knot, which was shown to be chiral by Max Dehn. All nontrivial torus knots are chiral. The Alexander polynomial cannot distinguish a knot from its mirror image, but the Jones polynomial can in some cases; if V k ( q ) ≠ V k ( q −1 ), then the knot is chiral, however the converse is not true.
The conjugacy definition would also allow a mirror image of the structure, but this is not needed, the structure itself is achiral. For example, if a symmetry group contains a 3-fold axis of rotation, it contains rotations in two opposite directions. (The structure is chiral for 11 pairs of space groups with a screw axis.)
Instead, both effects can also occur when the propagation direction of the electromagnetic wave together with the structure of an (achiral) material form a chiral experimental arrangement. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] This case, where the mutual arrangement of achiral components forms a chiral (experimental) arrangement, is known as extrinsic chirality.
Chiral molecules are always dissymmetric (lacking S n) but not always asymmetric (lacking all symmetry elements except the trivial identity). Asymmetric molecules are always chiral. [6] The following table shows some examples of chiral and achiral molecules, with the Schoenflies notation of the point group of the molecule.
The full tetrahedral group T d with fundamental domain. T d, *332, [3,3] or 4 3m, of order 24 – achiral or full tetrahedral symmetry, also known as the (2,3,3) triangle group. This group has the same rotation axes as T, but with six mirror planes, each through two 3-fold axes. The 2-fold axes are now S 4 (4) axes.
D nd (or D nv), [2n,2 +], (2*n) of order 4n – antiprismatic symmetry or full gyro-n-gonal group (abstract group: Dih 2n). For a given n , all three have n -fold rotational symmetry about one axis ( rotation by an angle of 360°/ n does not change the object), and 2-fold rotational symmetry about a perpendicular axis, hence about n of those.
A chiral phenomenon is one that is not identical to its mirror image (see the article on mathematical chirality).The spin of a particle may be used to define a handedness, or helicity, for that particle, which, in the case of a massless particle, is the same as chirality.