Published November 1, 2017 | Version v1
Journal article

Anthropics of aluminum-26 decay and biological homochirality

  • 1. Institute of Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 (United States)

Description

Results of recent experiment reinstate feasibility to the hypothesis that biomolecular homochirality originates from beta decay. Coupled with hints that this process occurred extraterrestrially suggests aluminum-26 as the most likely source. If true, then its appropriateness is highly dependent on the half-life and energy of this decay. Demanding that this mechanism hold places new constraints on the anthropically allowed range for multiple parameters, including the electron mass, difference between up and down quark masses, the fine structure constant, and the electroweak scale. These new constraints on particle masses are tighter than those previously found. However, one edge of the allowed region is nearly degenerate with an existing bound, which, using what is termed here as 'the principle of noncoincident peril', is argued to be a strong indicator that the fine structure constant must be an environmental parameter in the multiverse.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2017/11/025

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Journal Volume
2017
Journal Issue
11
Journal Page Range
p. 025
ISSN
1475-7516