2004/02/18 by Jonathan A. D. Wattis, Jonathan AD Wattis, Peter V. Coveney · 1 citation
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Chemistry and Stereochemistry Studies #Origins and Evolution of Life #Synthesis and Properties of Aromatic Compounds #nlin.AO #physics.bio-ph #physics.chem-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s11084-005-0658-7
26pages, 6 Figures
arxiv created 2004/02/18 · openalex publication_date 2005/06/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We propose a model for chiral polymerisation and investigate its symmetric and asymmetric solutions. The model has a source species which decays into left- and right-handed types of monomer, each of which can polymerise to form homochiral chains; these chains are susceptible to `poisoning' by the opposite handed monomer. Homochiral polymers are assumed to influence the proportion of each type of monomer formed from the precursor. We show that for certain parameter values a positive feedback mechanism makes the symmetric steady-state solution unstable. The kinetics of polymer formation are then analysed in the case where the system starts from zero concentrations of monomer and chains. We show that following a long induction time, extremely large concentrations of polymers are formed for a short time, during this time an asymmetry introduced into the system by a random external perturbation may be massively amplified. The system then approaches one of the steady-state solutions described above.