Chirally Sensitive Electron-Induced Molecular Breakup and the Vester-Ulbricht Hypothesis

Authors

J. M. Dreiling, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Timothy J. Gay, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2014

Citation

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 113, 118103 (2014)

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.118103

Comments

© 2014 American Physical Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

We have studied dissociative electron attachment in sub-eV collisions between longitudinally polarized electrons and chiral bromocamphor molecules. For a given target enantiomer, the dissociative Br anion production depends on the helicity of the incident electrons, with an asymmetry that depends on the electron energy and is of order 3 × 10⁻⁴. The existence of chiral sensitivity in a well-defined molecular breakup reaction demonstrates the viability of the Vester-Ulbrict hypothesis, namely, that the longitudinal polarization of cosmic beta radiation was responsible for the origins of biological homochirality.