Homochirality proliferation in space

Abstract

To understand the chirality selection in the biological organic system, a simple lattice model of chemical reaction with molecular diffusion is proposed and studied by Monte Carlo simulations. In addition to a simple stochastic process of conversions between an achiral reactant A and chiral products, R and S molecules, a nonlinear autocatalysis is incorporated by enhancing the reaction rate from A to R (or S), when A is surrounded by more than one R (or S) molecules. With this nonlinear autocatalysis, the chiral symmetry between R and S is shown to be broken in a dense system. In a dilute solution with a chemically inactive solvent, molecular diffusion accomplishes chirality selection, provided that the initial concentration is higher than the critical value.