| Abstract |
One of the leading hypotheses for the origin of terrestrial biomolecular homochirality (dominant L-amino acids and D-sugars) can be nominated as Cosmic Scenario; that is, polarized excitation sources in space triggered asymmetric reactions of organic molecules in such space materials as meteorites or interstellar dusts. The typical polarized excitation sources are circularly polarized light and spin-polarized radiation. Laboratory experiments were conducted to verify the scenario by using circularly polarized light from free electron laser and spin-polarized electrons from beta-decay radioactive nuclei. Thin solid films of racemic mixtures of amino acids and their precursor molecules as organic dust analogues were irradiated with these polarized quantum beams. The circular dichroism spectra of the irradiated films presented apparent emergence of optical anisotropy by polarized excitations. These results are important for the solution of the biomolecular homochirality problems. |
