Chiral tetrahedrons as unitary quaternions: Molecules and particles under the same standard?

Abstract

AbstractChiral tetrahedral molecules can be dealt with under the standard of quaternionic algebra. Specifically, noncommutativity of quaternions is a feature directly related to the chirality of molecules. We show that a quaternionic representation naturally arises out from empirical Fischer projections, and the action of the related algebra on the quantum states of molecules is studied. Analogies with fundamental particle physics are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005