Likewise, a handed structure “notices” the difference between left- and right-circularly polarized light, while a mirror-symmetric structure—such as a circle—cannot. The flat tile pattern has no mirror image identical to itself, much like your hands, and that asymmetry becomes imprinted onto the light it diffracts. The Einstein ProblemMathematicians had pursued a particular puzzle for roughly 50 years, known as the “Einstein problem.” That same year, a 2023 theory paper by physicist Joshua Socolar had already predicted chiral diffraction from hat tilings, but there was one wrinkle. But unlike conventional diffraction patterns, the entire arrangement twisted in one direction, with no mirror symmetry anywhere in the image.