Parity violation energy of biomolecules - I: Polypeptides

A computational algorithm is developed to compute the energy of parity-violation (E-pv) due to weak-nuclear forces acting within chain polymers. The method is applied to estimate the magnitude of E-pv associated with the folding of alpha-helices in polypeptide chains and, in turn, of typical proteins. Implications to the development of biological homochirality in nature are discussed in terms of a simple evolutionary model to assess the likelihood for energies of the order of the computed E-pv to have determined the direction of natural homochirality.