Chirally-sensitive electron-molecule interactions

29th International Conference on Photonic, Electronic, and Atomic Collisions

Dreiling, J.M.^1,2 ; Gay, T.J.^1

Jorgensen Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

NE

68588-0299, United States^1

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg

MD

20899, United States^2

关键词: Beta radiation;    Biological precursors;    Dissociative electron attachment;    Electron molecules;    Incident electrons;    Parity violation;    Quasielastic scattering;    Spin-polarized;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/635/1/012015/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/635/1/012015

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

All molecular forms of life have chemically-specific handedness. However, the origin of these asymmetries is not understood. A possible explanation was suggested by Vester and Ulbricht immediately following the discovery of parity violation in 1957: chiral beta radiation in cosmic rays may have preferentially destroyed one enantiomeric form of various biological precursors. In the experiments reported here, we observed chiral specificity in two electron- molecule interactions: quasi-elastic scattering and dissociative electron attachment. Using low- energy longitudinally spin-polarized (chiral) electrons as substitutes for beta rays, we found that chiral bromocamphor molecules exhibited both a transmission and dissociative electron attachment rate that depended on their handedness for a given direction of incident electron spin. Consequently, these results, especially those with dissociative electron attachment, connect the universal chiral asymmetry of the weak force with a molecular breakup process, thereby demonstrating the viability of the Vester-Ulbricht hypothesis.