A comment on time-reversal symmetry of chiral systems

✍ Scribed by Min-Sun Tsai; Ming-Chiu Ou; Iou-Chuan Yang; Jye-Chan Chen; Whie-Ann Hwang; Tieh-Sheng Lee

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 229 KB
• Volume: 173
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2614
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2614(90)87240-r

✦ Synopsis

We discuss a point pertaining to the time-reversal symmetry of optically active or chiral systems. The point in question is related to Kramers' time-reversal degeneracy. It is found that the time-reversal operator @= TK as defined by Barron is inadequate for the Dirac hydrogen atom. Here the operator T replaces t by -t and K takes the complex conjugate of anything that follows. The correct form of the operator 8 is found to be -ir]( u,)K, where u is only a phase. The operator trY is the 4 x 4 Pauli spin matrix and K the complex-conjugation operator.