2026-06-08T13:39:51Zhttps://docta.ucm.es/rest/oai/request

oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/506542023-08-27T08:57:43Zcom_20.500.14352_14col_20.500.14352_15

Dobado González, Antonio Bargueño, P. Gonzalo Fonrodona, Isabel 2023-06-20T10:35:04Z 2023-06-20T10:35:04Z 2008-04 0295-5075 10.1209/0295-5075/82/13002 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/50654 http://iopscience.iop.org/0295-5075/82/1/13002 http://iopscience.iop.org http://arxiv.org/abs/0802.2164 We examine the effect of cold dark matter on the discrimination between the two enantiomers of a chiral molecule. We estimate the energy difference between the two enantiomers due to the interaction between fermionic WIMPs (weak interacting massive particles) and molecular electrons on the basis that electrons have opposite helicities in opposite enantiomers. It is found that this energy difference is completely negligible. Dark matter could then be discarded as an inductor of chiroselection between enantiomers and then of biological homochirality. However, the effect of cosmological neutrinos, revisited with the currently accepted neutrino density, would reach, in the most favorable case, an upper bound of the same order of magnitude as the energy difference obtained from the well-known electroweak electron-nucleus interaction in some molecules. eng open access Could dark matter or neutrinos discriminate between the enantiomers of a chiral molecule? journal article