Towards detection of molecular parity violation via chiral co-sensing: the $^1$H/$^{31}$P model system

TL;DR

This study explores detecting molecular parity violation using chiral co-sensing in NMR, focusing on a $^1$H/$^{31}$P model system to identify and minimize systematic errors for future high-$Z$ nucleus experiments.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of a $^1$H/$^{31}$P NMR system to understand systematic effects, guiding future experiments with higher-$Z$ nuclei for parity violation detection.

Findings

Analysis of systematic effects in $^1$H/$^{31}$P NMR system.

Guidelines for experiments with higher-$Z$ nuclei.

Identification of challenges in observing parity violation.

Abstract

Fundamental weak interactions have been shown to violate parity in both nuclear and atomic systems. However, observation of parity violation in a molecular system has proven an elusive target. Nuclear spin dependent contributions of the weak interaction are expected to result in energetic differences between enantiomers manifesting in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra as chemical shift differences on the order of $10^{-6}$ Hz to $10^{-3}$ Hz for high-$Z$ nuclei. By employing simultaneous measurements of the diastereomeric splittings for a light and a heavy nucleus in solution-state NMR, residual chemical shift differences persisting in non-chiral environment between enantiomers of chiral compounds smaller than the typical linewidth of high-field NMR may be resolved. Sources of error must be identified and minimized to verify that the observed effect is, in fact, due to parity violation and not systematic effects. This paper presents a detailed analysis of a system incorporating \textsuperscript{31}P and \textsuperscript{1}H NMR to elucidate the systematic effects and to guide experiments with higher-$Z$ nuclei where molecular parity violation may be resolved.