Parity-violation effect on vibrational spectra

Weak nuclear coupling between the nucleons of a molecule and its electrons causes the energy and electronic wave function to be different for two enantiomers of a chiral molecule, i.e., for two molecules which are the specular image of each other. Although this effect has been known for some time, its magnitude is so small that all attempts made so far at measuring it experimentally have failed. We report in this paper computational estimates of vibrational frequency shifts due to parity-violation energy near or above current experimental resolution. Our findings indicate that an experimental evidence of parity-violation effects in molecular systems is within reach.