The PAH world hypothesis is a speculative hypothesis that proposes that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), known to be abundant in the universe, including in comets, and assumed to be abundant in the primordial soup of the early Earth, played a major role in the origin of life by mediating the synthesis of RNA molecules, leading into the RNA world. However, as yet, the hypothesis is untested.

The 1952 Miller–Urey experiment demonstrated the synthesis of organic compounds, such as amino acids, formaldehyde and sugars, from the original inorganic precursors the researchers presumed to have been present in the primordial soup (but is no longer considered likely). This experiment inspired many others. In 1961, Joan Oró found that the nucleotide base adenine could be made from hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and ammonia in a water solution. Experiments conducted later showed that the other RNA and DNA nucleobases could be obtained through simulated prebiotic chemistry with a reducing atmosphere.

The RNA world hypothesis shows how RNA can become its own catalyst (a ribozyme). In between there are some missing steps such as how the first RNA molecules could be formed. The PAH world hypothesis was proposed by Simon Nicholas Platts in May 2004 to try to fill in this missing step. A more thoroughly elaborated idea has been published by Ehrenfreund et al.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are the most common and abundant of the known polyatomic molecules in the visible universe, and are considered a likely constituent of the primordial sea. PAHs, along with fullerenes (or "buckyballs"), have been recently detected in nebulae. Buckminsterfullerene (C₆₀) has been identified in the interstellar medium spaces. (Fullerenes are also implicated in the origin of life; according to astronomer Letizia Stanghellini, "It's possible that buckyballs from outer space provided seeds for life on Earth.") PAHs, subjected to interstellar medium (ISM) conditions, are transformed, through hydrogenation, oxygenation and hydroxylation, to more complex organics — "a step along the path toward amino acids and nucleotides, the raw materials of proteins and DNA, respectively". Further, as a result of these transformations, the PAHs lose their spectroscopic signature which could be one of the reasons "for the lack of PAH detection in interstellar ice grains, particularly the outer regions of cold, dense clouds or the upper molecular layers of protoplanetary disks."

In 2013, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were detected in the upper atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn.

Low-temperature chemical pathways from simple organic compounds to complex PAHs have been demonstrated. Such chemical pathways may help explain the presence of PAHs in the low-temperature atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, and may be significant pathways, in terms of the PAH world hypothesis, in producing precursors to biochemicals related to life as we know it.

PAHs are not normally very soluble in sea water, but when subject to ionizing radiation such as solar UV light, the outer hydrogen atoms can be stripped off and replaced with a hydroxyl group, rendering the PAHs far more soluble.

These modified PAHs are amphiphilic, which means that they have parts that are both hydrophilic and hydrophobic. When in solution, they assemble in discotic mesogenic (liquid crystal) stacks which, like lipids, tend to organize with their hydrophobic parts protected.