Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Chirality (physics)
open-in-new
<p>A chiral phenomenon is one that is not identical to its <a href="/facts/Mirror_image/xkbUhBzI">mirror image</a> (see the article on <a href="/facts/Chirality_(mathematics)/FtKNlHTb">mathematical chirality</a>). The <a href="/facts/Spin_(physics)/4Jvp7e8P">spin</a> of a <a href="/facts/Elementary_particle/CTFDM97U">particle</a> 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. A <a href="/facts/Symmetry_(physics)/gJmgsooI"> symmetry transformation</a> between the two is called <a href="/facts/Parity_(physics)/emSbJ4hD">parity</a> transformation. Invariance under parity transformation by a <a href="/facts/Dirac_fermion/gJuu9J69">Dirac fermion</a> is called chiral symmetry. </p>