Selection of handedness in prebiotic chemical processes

Abstract

We see chiral asymmetry in nature at all levels: from elementary particles to living beings. This naturally makes us wonder if these asymmetries are interrelated. Is it possible that the particular asymmetry we see in life’s chemistry is a consequence of the chiral asymmetry (parity violation) at the level of electroweak interactions? Here we present a theory that relates the strength of a chiral asymmetry and random chiral fluctuations to the probability that molecules with a particular handedness will dominate in a symmetry breaking transition. This theory tells us that, under reasonable prebiotic conditions, the molecular chiral asymmetry could be determined by chiral asymmetries as small as those due to weak neutral currents.