Binary mixtures of chiral gases

Abstract: A possible solution of the well known paradox of chiral molecules is based on the idea of spontaneous symmetry breaking. At low pressure the molecules are delocalized between the two minima of a given molecular potential while at higher pressure they become localized in one minimum due to the intermolecular dipole-dipole interactions. Evidence for such a phase transition is provided by measurements of the inversion spectrum of ammonia and deuterated ammonia at different pressures. In particular, at pressure greater than a critical value no inversion line is observed. These data are well accounted for by a model previously developed and recently extended to mixtures. In the present paper, we discuss the variation of the critical pressure in binary mixtures as a function of the fractions of the constituents.