Chiral catalysis of nuclear fusion in molecules

At low energies, nuclear fusion is strongly a®ected by electron screening of the Coulomb repulsion among the fusing nuclei. It may thus be possible to catalyze nuclear fusion in molecules (i.e., to fuse speci¯c nuclei in situ) through quantum control of electron wave functions in intense laser ¯elds. The circularly polarized (chiral) laser ¯eld can e®ectively squeeze the electron wave functions, greatly enhancing the screening in the spatial region relevant for the fusion process. We estimate the corresponding fusion probabilities, and ¯nd that the proposed chiral catalysis of nuclear fusion in molecules may be observable, potentially with important practical applications.