Supernovae and the Chirality of the Amino Acids

TL;DR

This paper proposes a mechanism linking supernova neutrinos and magnetic fields to the origin of amino acid chirality, involving nuclear spin coupling, chemical replication, and galactic mixing, explaining the uniformity of biological homochirality.

Contribution

It introduces a novel astrophysical and chemical process explaining the origin and distribution of amino acid chirality across the galaxy.

Findings

Neutrino interactions can selectively destroy one amino acid enantiomer.

Magnetic fields influence the coupling of nuclear spins to molecular chirality.

Galactic mixing distributes the dominant chirality throughout the galaxy.

Abstract

A mechanism for creating amino acid enantiomerism that always selects the same global chirality is identified, and subsequent chemical replication and galactic mixing that would populate the galaxy with the predominant species is described. This involves: (1) the spin of the 14N in the amino acids, or in precursor molecules from which amino acids might be formed, coupling to the chirality of the molecules; 2) the neutrinos emitted from the supernova, together with magnetic field from the nascent neutron star or black hole formed from the supernova selectively destroying one orientation of the 14N, and thus selecting the chirality associated with the other 14N orientation; (3) chemical evolution, by which the molecules replicate and evolve to more complex forms of a single chirality on a relatively short timescale; and (4) galactic mixing on a longer timescale mixing the selected molecules throughout the galaxy.