The limited roles of autocatalysis and enantiomeric cross inhibition in achieving homochirality in dilute systems

Abstract

To understand the effects of fluctuations on achieving homochirality, we employ a Monte-Carlo method where autocatalysis and enantiomeric cross-inhibition, as well as racemization and deracemization reactions are included. The results of earlier work either without autocatalysis or without cross-inhibition are reproduced. Bifurcation diagrams and the dependencies of the number of reaction steps on parameters are studied. In systems with 30,000 molecules, for example, up to a billion reaction steps may be needed to achieve homochirality without autocatalysis.

14 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, Orig. Life Evol. Biosph., in press