Origin of Homochirality in Amino Acids Induced by Lyman-α Irradiation in the Early Stage of the Milky Way.

Abstract

The enantiomeric excess (ee) of l-form amino acids found in the Murchison meteorite poses some issues about the cosmic origin of their chirality. Circular dichroism (CD) spectra of amino acids in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) at around 6.8 eV (182 nm) indicate that the circularly polarized light can induce ee through photochemical reactions. Here, we resort to ab initio calculations to extract the CD spectra up to the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) region (∼11 eV), and we propose a novel equation to compute the ee applicable to a wider range of light frequency than what is available to date. This allows us to show that the strength of the induced ee (|ee|) in the 10 eV VUV region is comparable to the one in the 6.8 eV FUV region. This feature is common for some key amino acids (alanine, 2-aminobutyric acid, and valine). In space, intense Lyman-α (Lyα) light of 10.2 eV is emitted from star forming regions. This study provides a theoretical basis that Lyα emitter from an early starburst in the Milky Way plays a crucial role in initiating the ee of amino acids.