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Science 2 February 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5812, pp. 629 - 633
DOI: 10.1126/science.1136598
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Reports

Single Photon-Induced Symmetry Breaking of H2 Dissociation

F. Martín,1 J. Fernández,1 T. Havermeier,2 L. Foucar,2 Th. Weber,2 K. Kreidi,2 M. Schöffler,2 L. Schmidt,2 T. Jahnke,2 O. Jagutzki,2 A. Czasch,2 E. P. Benis,3 T. Osipov,4 A. L. Landers,5 A. Belkacem,4 M. H. Prior,4 H. Schmidt-Böcking,2 C. L. Cocke,3 R. Dörner2*

H2, the smallest and most abundant molecule in the universe, has a perfectly symmetric ground state. What does it take to break this symmetry? We found that the inversion symmetry can be broken by absorption of a linearly polarized photon, which itself has inversion symmetry. In particular, the emission of a photoelectron with subsequent dissociation of the remaining H +2 fragment shows no symmetry with respect to the ionic H+ and neutral H atomic fragments. This lack of symmetry results from the entanglement between symmetric and antisymmetric H +2 states that is caused by autoionization. The mechanisms behind this symmetry breaking are general for all molecules.

1 Departamento de Química, C-9, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
2 Institut für Kernphysik, University Frankfurt, Max von Laue Strasse 1, D-60438 Frankfurt, Germany.
3 Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Cardwell Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA.
4 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
5 Department of Physics, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: doerner{at}atom.uni-frankfurt.de

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Ultrafast Probing of Core Hole Localization in N2.
M. S. Schoffler, J. Titze, N. Petridis, T. Jahnke, K. Cole, L. Ph. H. Schmidt, A. Czasch, D. Akoury, O. Jagutzki, J. B. Williams, et al. (2008)
Science 320, 920-923
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Simplest Double Slit: Interference and Entanglement in Double Photoionization of H2.
D. Akoury, K. Kreidi, T. Jahnke, Th. Weber, A. Staudte, M. Schoffler, N. Neumann, J. Titze, L. Ph. H. Schmidt, A. Czasch, et al. (2007)
Science 318, 949-952
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E-Letters:

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Symmetry Breaking?
Marcelo P. de Miranda
Science Online, 5 Apr 2007 [Full text]

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