Ostwald Ripening, Chiral Crystallization, and the Common-Ancestor Effect

Abstract

We introduce an agent-based model for advection-mediated chiral autocatalysis in which we take into account dissolution-crystallization processes through Ostwald ripening. We demonstrate that the latter phenomenon is the key to explaining previously puzzling experimental results whereby complete chiral symmetry breaking is attained from an initially unbiased mixture of seed crystals. We show that this homochirality is achieved by what has been termed the common-ancestor effect: Ostwald ripening removes competing lineages, leaving only one common ancestor for the entire system.