Explaining the Variations in Isotopic Ratios in Meteoritic Amino Acids

Measurements of the isotopic abundances in meteoritic amino acids have found enhancements of 2H/H, 15N/14N, and 13C/12C in the amino acids in the meteorites studied.
We show that they are consistent with the processing of the constituents of the meteorites by electron anti-neutrinos that would be expected from a core-collapse supernova or neutron-star merger. Using theoretical electron anti-neutrino cross sections we are able to predict these isotopic ratio variations depending on the time-integrated anti-neutrino flux at the site where the amino acids were processed.
Michael A. Famiano, Richard N. Boyd, Toshitaka Kajino, Satoshi Chiba, Yirong Mo, Takashi Onaka, Toshi Suzuki
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph); Space Physics (physics.space-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:2005.05540 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2005.05540v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Michael Famiano [
[v1] Tue, 12 May 2020 04:11:54 UTC (648 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.05540
Astrobiology, Astrochemistry