Polarized muons and the origin of biological homochirality

被引：0

作者：

Globus, Noemie ^{[1
,2
,3
,4
]}

Blandford, Roger D. ^{[5
]}

Fedynitch, Anatoli ^{[6
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Calif, Dept Astron & Astrophys, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA

[2] Simons Fdn, Flatiron Inst, Ctr Computat Astrophys, New York, NY 10003 USA

[3] Czech Acad Sci, Inst Phys, ELI Beamlines, Dolni Brezany 25241, Czech Republic

[4] RIKEN, Astrophys Big Bang Lab ABBL, Cluster Pioneering Res, 21 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 3510198, Japan

[5] Stanford Univ, Kavli Inst Particle Astrophys & Cosmol, Stanford, CA 94305 USA

[6] Univ Tokyo, Inst Cosm Ray Res, 5-1-5 Kashiwa No Ha, Kashiwa, Chiba 2778582, Japan

来源：

37TH INTERNATIONAL COSMIC RAY CONFERENCE, ICRC2021 | 2022年

关键词：

EXCESSES; LIFE;

D O I：

暂无

中图分类号：

P1 [天文学];

学科分类号：

0704 ;

摘要：

While biologists have not yet reached a consensus on the definition of life, homochirality - the specific molecular handedness of biomolecules - is a phenomenon only produced by life. The unraveling of its origin requires interdisciplinary research, by exploring fundamental physics, chemistry, astrophysics and biology. Here, we consider the origin of biological homochirality in the context of astrophysics and particle physics. The weak force, one of the fundamental forces operating in nature, is parity-violating. On Earth, at ground level, most of our cosmic radiation dose comes from polarized muons formed in a decay involving the weak force. We discuss how the magnetic polarization is transmitted in cosmic showers within several different environments which are prime targets in the search for the origin of life. We consider how this polarization could have induced a biological preference for one type of chirality over the other, and discuss the implications for the search of life in other worlds.

引用

页数：10