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Proflavin: from Astrophysics to Astrobiology

Proflavin, C_13H_11N_3 (3, 6-diaminoacridine), is well known in biology and chemistry. However, our interest in this material has started in the fields of astrophysics and theoretical condensed matter physics. The diffuse interstellar bands were discovered ninety years ago as absorption spectral structures from low-density interstellar clouds. Up to now astrophysicists have been measured about 300 diffuse bands distributed mostly in the visible region of the spectrum. Many different carriers of diffuse interstellar bands (such as processes on the surfaces of astrophysical dust grains, or molecules and nanoparticles made of various materials), have been suggested and completely or partially rejected. We study proflavin and related molecules as possible carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands. Proflavin has been also suggested as a molecular "midwife" which increased the rate of DNA and RNA formation in an early stage of development of biological matter on Earth. The time dependent density functional theory is a method which has been developed as an advancement of the time dependent Schrödinger equation in the quantum physics. Using computational algorithms within this theory we study optical properties of proflavin, its cation and anion. Our results for a neutral molecule in vacuum show a good agreement with laboratory measurements of the optical spectrum of proflavin dissolved in water and at least one line in the diffuse interstellar bands.

optical spectra; proflavin; astrophysics; astrobiology

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