scholarly journals Chiral Oscillations and Spontaneous Mirror Symmetry Breaking in a Simple Polymerization Model

Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1388
Author(s):  
William Bock ◽  
Enrique Peacock-López
Keyword(s):  
Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Mirror Symmetry ◽  
Chiral Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Enantiomeric Excess ◽  
Chemical Species ◽  
Preferential Formation ◽  
Chiral Amplification ◽  
Sustained Oscillations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Origin Of Life

The origin of biological homochirality—defined as the preference of biological systems for only one enantiomer—has widespread implications in the study of chemical evolution and the origin of life. The activation—polymerization—epimerization—depolymerization (APED) model is a theoretical model originally proposed to describe chiral symmetry breaking in a simple dimerization system. It is known that the model produces chiral and chemical oscillations for certain system parameters, in particular, the preferential formation of heterochiral polymers. In order to investigate the effect of higher oligomers, our model adds trimers, tetramers, and pentamers. We report sustained oscillations of all chemical species and the enantiomeric excess for a wide range of parameter sets as well as the periodic chiral amplification of a small initial enantiomeric excess to a nearly homochiral state.

Energy Threshold for Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Molecular Self-Replication

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Hawbaker ◽  
Donna Blackmond
Keyword(s):  
Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Chiral Symmetry ◽  
Parity Violation ◽  
Chiral Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Energy Difference ◽  
Autocatalytic Reaction ◽  
Energy Threshold ◽  
Chiral Amplification ◽  
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.

Stochastic chiral symmetry breaking process besides the deterministic one

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (43) ◽  
pp. 29424-29428 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Silva-Dias ◽  
A. López-Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Chiral Symmetry ◽  
Chiral Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Enantiomeric Excess ◽  
Statistical Fluctuation

In chiral symmetry breaking, populations with initial enantiomeric excess (EE) are probabilistically favored if statistical fluctuation is present, as in nature.

Revival of the concept of the cold prehistory of life

1993 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitalii I. Goldanskii
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Mirror Symmetry ◽  
Solid Phase ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Enantiomeric Excess ◽  
Quantum Limit ◽  
Spontaneous Breaking ◽  
Quasi Equilibrium ◽  
Chiral Purity ◽  
The Origin Of Life

The extra-terrestrial scenario of the origin of life suggested by Svante Arrhenius (1908) as the ‘panspermia’ hypothesis was revived by the discovery of a low-temperature quantum limit of a chemical reaction rate in 1973. Entropy factors play no role near absolute zero, and slow molecular tunnelling can lead to the exothermic formation of quite complex molecules. Interstellar grains or particles of cometary tails could serve as possible cold seeds of life, with acetic acid, urea and products of their polycondensation as quasi-equilibrium intermediates. Scenarios of the origin of life should consider the appearance of a typical feature of living species—chiral purity of their aminoacids and sugars. Very cold solid environment hinders tunnelling racemization under conditions typical for outer space. However, the decisive problem of the origin of chiral purity of the Earth's biosphere is the mechanism of the spontaneous breaking of mirror symmetry rather than the search for some ‘advantage factors’ which can promote gradual accumulation of enantiomeric excess. Extra-terrestrial (cold, solid phase) scenarios of the origin of life seem to be more promising from that point of view than terrestrial (warm) scenarios. In a scheme of five main stages of prebiological evolution some problems important for further investigation are briefly discussed.

scholarly journals Spontaneous and directed symmetry breaking in the formation of chiral nanocrystals

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (23) ◽  
pp. 11159-11164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uri Hananel ◽  
Assaf Ben-Moshe ◽  
Haim Diamant ◽  
Gil Markovich
Keyword(s):  
Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Mirror Symmetry ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Colloidal Synthesis ◽  
Aqueous Environment ◽  
Chemical Systems ◽  
Chiral Amplification ◽  
Circularly Polarized Luminescence ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Crucial Part

Symmetry plays a crucial part in our understanding of the natural world. Mirror symmetry breaking is of special interest as it is related to life as we know it. Studying systems which display chiral amplification, therefore, could further our understanding of symmetry breaking in chemical systems, in general, and thus also of the asymmetry in Nature. Here, we report on strong chiral amplification in the colloidal synthesis of intrinsically chiral lanthanide phosphate nanocrystals, measured via circularly polarized luminescence. The amplification involves spontaneous symmetry breaking into either left- or right-handed nanocrystals below a critical temperature. Furthermore, chiral tartaric acid molecules in the solution direct the amplified nanocrystal handedness through a discontinuous transition between left- and right-handed excess. We analyze the observations based on the statistical thermodynamics of critical phenomena. Our results demonstrate how chiral minerals with high enantiopurity can form in a racemic aqueous environment.

Mirror symmetry breaking and chiral amplification in foldamer-based supramolecular helical aggregates

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (17) ◽  
pp. 2292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Azeroual ◽  
Jamie Surprenant ◽  
Thomas D. Lazzara ◽  
Marta Kocun ◽  
Ye Tao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Mirror Symmetry ◽  
Chiral Amplification

Energy Threshold for Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Molecular Self-Replication

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Hawbaker ◽  
Donna Blackmond
Keyword(s):  
Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Chiral Symmetry ◽  
Parity Violation ◽  
Chiral Symmetry Breaking ◽  
Energy Difference ◽  
Autocatalytic Reaction ◽  
Energy Threshold ◽  
Chiral Amplification ◽  
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.

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