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.