Magnetars and Magnetic Separation of Chiral Radicals in Interstellar Space: Homochirality
| Autor: | John P. Davis, Cheryl D. Stevenson |
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| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. 123:9587-9593 |
| ISSN: | 1520-5215 1089-5639 |
| DOI: | 10.1021/acs.jpca.9b07817 |
| Popis: | Pasteur was the first to realize Earth's homochirality. Consequently, he attempted to design experiments revealing a mechanism that would expose life's chiral preference. Some of these experiments involved the application of magnetic fields to chemical reactions. His experiments failed, in part, because B-fields are pseudo-vectors and cannot couple preferentially to one handedness. However, extremely large magnetic fields cause the Maxwell equations to break down. This allows the motions of spin and charge densities in paramagnetic anion radicals to produce polarized axial B-fields that can undergo preferential coupling to one handedness. Hence, when a racemic mixture of paramagnetic organic molecules passes by an extremely large external gradated magnetic field, the enantiomers experience different torque forces and acquire different translational directions. B-fields of the required magnitude are unknown on this planet. In fact, they would be lethal, thereby eliminating any chance of Pasteur's success. On the other hand, Duncan and co-workers have recently discovered and garnered physical understanding of magnetars in interstellar space. Some of these neutron star systems produce B-fields greater than the quantum electrodynamic field strength, which is more than enough to generate the required torque for the interstellar enantiomeric separation. In space, chiralitically enriched materials can be deposited on planetesimals and result in homochiral "islands" on the planets. The formation of magnetars is a consequence of weak force events. We assert that, in interstellar space, a plethora of enantiomerically enriched dust clouds resulted from inter-magnetar-paramagnetic molecule force fields. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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