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PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv

Wave chirality reversal without passing achirality

  • M. V. Berry
  • K. Y. Bliokh
  • J. M. Robbins
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Abstract

Chiral connectedness describes chiral structures that transform smoothly into their mirror images while never being achiral. The phenomenon is illustrated with a two-parameter family of complex vector fields E representing paraxial optical Gaussian beams. E is chiral everywhere in the parameter plane except the origin. During a circuit of the origin, E reverses chirality twice without being achiral. Different aspects of chirality are associated with the vector and scalar nature of E; natural measures of each, and their combinations, change sign at parameter values where E is chiral. The analysis is simpler for planar fields E, but their chiralities are essentially the same when the subtleties of three dimensions are included.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{berry2026wave,
  title = {{Wave chirality reversal without passing achirality}},
  author = {M. V. Berry and K. Y. Bliokh and J. M. Robbins},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.18822},
  eprint = {2607.18822},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.18822},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Wave chirality reversal without passing achirality
AU  - M. V. Berry
AU  - K. Y. Bliokh
AU  - J. M. Robbins
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/26
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.18822
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.18822
AB  - Chiral connectedness describes chiral structures that transform smoothly into their mirror images while never being achiral. The phenomenon is illustrated with a two-parameter family of complex vector fields E representing paraxial optical Gaussian beams. E is chiral everywhere in the parameter plane except the origin. During a circuit of the origin, E reverses chirality twice without being achiral. Different aspects of chirality are associated with the vector and scalar nature of E; natural measures of each, and their combinations, change sign at parameter values where E is chiral. The analysis is simpler for planar fields E, but their chiralities are essentially the same when the subtleties of three dimensions are included.
ER  -