Influence of static magnetic fields on chirally autocatalytic radical-pair reactions

In this note we discuss the conditions under which a static magnetic field can affect the enantiomeric excess produced by a chirally autocatalytic chemical reaction. These conditions may be attainable in a recently discovered family of reactions. A necessary condition is the magnetic fieldʹs ability to alter the rate of one or more key elementary steps in the kinetic reaction mechanism. No fundamental symmetry principle is violated. We demonstrate the possible quantitative aspects of this effect with a kinetic model.