title: Mirror symmetry breaking with limited enantioselective autocatalysis and temperature gradients: a stability survey.
abstract: We analyze limited enantioselective (LES) autocatalysis in a temperature gradient and with internal flow/recycling of hot and cold material. Microreversibility forbids broken mirror symmetry for LES in the presence of a temperature gradient alone. This symmetry can be broken however when the auto-catalysis and limited enantioselective catalysis are each localized within the regions of low and high temperature, respectively. This scheme has been recently proposed as a plausible model for spontaneous emergence of chirality in abyssal hydrothermal vents. Regions in chemical parameter space are mapped out in which the racemic state is unstable and bifurcates to chiral solutions.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Ctra. Ajalvir Km. 4, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain. blancodtc@cab.inta-csic.es
authors.forename: Celia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blanco
authors.forename: Josep M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ribó
authors.forename: Joaquim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crusats
authors.forename: Zoubir
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: El-Hachemi
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moyano
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hochberg
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D019277:Entropy; D008956:Models, Chemical; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013696:Temperature