Space-filling efficiency and optical properties of hemoglycin

Abstract

The empty, extensive low-density lattice topology of hemoglycin is examined to understand how in space, and possibly as early as 800M years into cosmic time a rod-like polymer of glycine and iron came into dominance. A central question to be answered is whether the hemoglycin rod lattice with diamond 2H symmetry represents the most efficient covering of space by a regular arrangement of identical rods. Starting from the tetrahedral symmetry of every hemoglycin lattice vertex we find that the regular truncated tetrahedron of Archimedes may be expanded until neighboring hexagon faces are coincident, at which point space filling is 23/24 or 95.8333% complete. We describe the unit cells of the diamond 2H rod lattice and its conforming near-complete space-filling structure, which has identical symmetry. Maximum space filling via a minimum of molecular material can allow hemoglycin to drive accretion in molecular clouds, contributing to the composition of dust, and providing a background for its widespread presence in meteoritic samples and in cometary material that falls to Earth. The optical properties of hemoglycin lattice entities are derived from quantum calculations of ultraviolet and visible transition energies and strengths. The hemoglycin extinction curve duplicates the nominal 218nm ultraviolet absorption feature known as the UV bump, together with two visible absorption features present in a generic compilation of astronomical extinction data.