ISSN:
0899-0042
Keywords:
chirality
;
origin of life
;
Bose condensation
;
organic superconductivity
;
electroweak interaction
;
Chemistry
;
Organic Chemistry
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
Notes:
We review a recent paper20 in which a specific enhancement factor (i.e., a phase transition into a condensed Bose mode) is proposed to account for the observed amplification of the ground state energies of the L- and D-amino acid enantiomers; the difference between these energies is assumed to be due to the neutral parity-violating electroweak interaction. This physical effect initially shifts the enantiomer energies by about 3 × 10-19 eV. The proposed phase transition is characterized by a critical temperature Tc, which may be studied theoretically by enlarging the standard electroweak theory to include either the top quark or supersymmetry21. Possible experimental means of finding Tc are discussed.
Additional Material:
1 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chir.530030503
