title: Spontaneous Chiral Symmetry Breaking for Finite Systems.
abstract: Theoretical clues are desirable to help uncover the origin of bio-homochirality in life, as well as the mechanisms for the asymmetric production of functional chiral substances. Here, an open-to-matter reaction network based on a model proposed by Plasson et al. is studied. In the extended model, the statistical fluctuations lead the system to break chiral symmetry autonomously, that is, without any initial enantiomeric excess or external influence. In the stability diagrams, we observe regions of parameter space that correspond to racemic, homochiral, chiral oscillatory, and, to our knowledge, for the first time in a chiral model, chaotic regimes. The dependencies of the final concentrations of chiral substances on the parameters are determined analytically and discussed for both the racemic and homochiral regimes.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil. boscheto@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Emerson
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0649-0373
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boscheto
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: López-Castillo
mesh_terms: D019369:Life; D008956:Models, Chemical; D013816:Thermodynamics
keywords: asymmetric catalysis; chiral symmetry; kinetics; nonequilibrium processes; spontaneous symmetry breaking