Explaining the avian compass through sustained quantum dynamics in driven, open three-radical systems

通过驱动的开放三基系统中的持续量子动力学解释鸟类指南针

• 批准号: EP/V047175/1
• 负责人: Daniel Kattnig
• 金额: $ 25.77万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FV047175%2F1
• 关键词: Explaining; avian; compass; through; sustained

In the past 25 years, we have witnessed the emergence of quantum technologies, including quantum computers or simulators, from a scientific dream to reality. Google's claim to have achieved quantum supremacy has spurred the global race toward harnessing the quantum advantage. The next major advance, enabled by the applications of quantum computers, may become a reality within decades. The breakthrough hinges on one fundamental imperative: the need to sustain quantum superpositions and, crucially, entanglement in noisy environments.Has nature evolved to exploit quantum phenomena in ways that surpass current technologies? Could truly quantum effects operate in the warm, wet and noisy environment that is characteristic of life? Does this provide a decisive advantage over "classical" processes? Indeed, evidence accumulated over the last four decades does support a conclusion that various organisms employ coherent quantum dynamics to enable magnetoreception: the ability to sense the geomagnetic field. Yet, it remains to be shown exactly how coherent quantum effects can operate in the warm, wet, and noisy surroundings that are characteristic of biology. Previous studies provided a conceptual model, but failed to rationalize the sustained quantum coherence that is believed to enable this exquisite sensitivity to the magnetic field. We believe this failure is a consequence of an inadequate description of the biological environment, i.e. the openness of the quantum system as it is coupled to the protein motion-a deficit which we here shall overcome. This treatment will explain how living systems could exercise the benefit of a quantum effect to provide a decisive advantage to life. We will do this by focusing, for the first time on systems of radical pairs and three radicals, for which we hope to be able to demonstrate that radical motion can amplify magnetic field effects and sustain quantum dynamics, if the system is driven to a metastable state not accessible in closed-system formulations.

在过去的25年里，我们见证了量子技术的出现，包括量子计算机或模拟器，从科学梦想变为现实。谷歌声称已经实现了量子霸权，这刺激了全球利用量子优势的竞赛。下一个重大进展，由量子计算机的应用所实现，可能在几十年内成为现实。这一突破取决于一个基本的必要条件：在嘈杂的环境中维持量子叠加的需要，以及至关重要的纠缠。大自然是否已经进化到以超越当前技术的方式利用量子现象？量子效应真的能在生命特有的温暖、潮湿和嘈杂的环境中发挥作用吗？这是否提供了相对于“经典”过程的决定性优势？事实上，过去40年来积累的证据确实支持这样一个结论，即各种生物体利用相干量子动力学来实现磁感受：感知地磁场的能力。然而，相干量子效应如何在生物学特有的温暖、潮湿和嘈杂的环境中发挥作用还有待证明。以前的研究提供了一个概念模型，但未能合理化持续的量子相干性，这种相干性被认为能够实现对磁场的灵敏度。我们相信这种失败是由于对生物环境的描述不充分，即量子系统与蛋白质运动耦合时的开放性--我们在此将克服这一缺陷。这种治疗将解释生命系统如何发挥量子效应的好处，为生命提供决定性的优势。为此，我们将首次关注自由基对和三自由基系统，我们希望能够证明，如果系统被驱动到一个亚稳态，在封闭系统公式中无法访问，自由基运动可以放大磁场效应并维持量子动力学。

项目成果

Spin Chemistry Simulation via Hybrid-Quantum Machine Learning

通过混合量子机器学习进行自旋化学模拟

• DOI: 10.1109/qce53715.2022.00147
• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Brokowski T

Magnetoreception in cryptochrome enabled by one-dimensional radical motion

一维激进运动实现隐花色素的磁接收

• DOI: 10.1116/5.0142227
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: AVS Quantum Science
• 作者: Ramsay J

Radical triads, not pairs, may explain effects of hypomagnetic fields on neurogenesis.

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010519
• 发表时间: 2022-09
• 期刊: PLoS computational biology
• 影响因子: 4.3

Radical Scavenging Could Answer the Challenge Posed by Electron-Electron Dipolar Interactions in the Cryptochrome Compass Model.

• DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.1c00332
• 发表时间: 2021-11-22
• 期刊: JACS Au
• 影响因子: 8
• 作者: Babcock NS;Kattnig DR
• 通讯作者: Kattnig DR