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Geometry of chiral temporal structures. II. The formalism

Aycke Roos1,*, Pablo M. Maier1,*, Andres F. Ordonez2,†, and Olga Smirnova1,3,4,‡

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Present address: Department of Physics, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
  • ‡Contact author: smirnova@mbi-berlin.de
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Phys. Rev. A 113, 013111 – Published 9 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/88lx-sppq

Abstract

We develop a mathematical formalism underlying the emergence of enantiosensitive molecular orientation due to photoionization or photoexitation of chiral molecules. We consider geometric quantities such as the Berry connection and Berry curvature in light-driven chiral electronic states in the space of complex light polarization vectors. The parametric dependence of the light-driven electronic wave function on such vectors is based on various possible mutual orientations between the laser field and a chiral molecule. Using the tools of differential geometry, we show how the enantiosensitive observables arise from the geometry of the molecular response in such spaces.

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Geometry of chiral temporal structures. I. Physical effects

Andres F. Ordonez, Aycke Roos, Pablo M. Maier, Piero Decleva, David Ayuso, and Olga Smirnova
Phys. Rev. A 113, 013110 (2026)

Article Text

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Phys. Rev. A 113, 013111– Published 9 January, 2026
  • Received 3 June 2025
  • Accepted 12 November 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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