Chirality Driven Helical Pattern Formation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel mechanism for helical pattern formation driven by chirality and reactions, without relying on diffusion, revealing how microscopic chirality can produce macroscopic helical structures through nonequilibrium processes.

Contribution

It demonstrates a new physical instability mechanism that leads to helical patterns from chiral reactions, expanding understanding beyond traditional diffusion-based models.

Findings

Reveals a chirality-driven instability leading to helical patterns

Shows helical structures can form without diffusion

Links microscopic chirality to macroscopic structures

Abstract

We study the pattern formation of chiral charges in the presence of reactions. We show that, in contrast to the original Turing's mechanism of pattern formation in diffusion-reaction systems, the interplay between chiral effects and reactions can lead to a new kind of instability against spatially inhomogeneous perturbations, and furthermore, to a helical pattern formation, even without diffusion. This provides a new physical mechanism that can generate a macroscopic helical structure from microscopic chirality, including chirality of elementary particles, via nonequilibrium processes.