Energy Threshold for Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Molecular Self-Replication

We have determined the energy required for symmetry breaking and chiral amplification in the Soai autocatalytic reaction. This work examines the likelihood that parity violation energy difference of enantiomers is implicated in the origin of chiral symmetry breaking and highlights the challenges inherent in a search for a prebiotically plausible version of Soai autocatalysis.