The radical-pair mechanism as a paradigm for the emerging science of quantum biology
arXiv:1512.00450 · doi:10.1142/S0217984915300136
Abstract
The radical-pair mechanism was introduced in the 1960's to explain anomalously large EPR and NMR signals in chemical reactions of organic molecules. It has evolved to the cornerstone of spin chemistry, the study of the effect electron and nuclear spins have on chemical reactions, with the avian magnetic compass mechanism and the photosynthetic reaction center dynamics being prominent biophysical manifestations of such effects. In recent years the radical-pair mechanism was shown to be an ideal biological system where the conceptual tools of quantum information science can be fruitfully applied. We will here review recent work making the case that the radical-pair mechanism is indeed a major driving force of the emerging field of quantum biology.
22 pages, 13 figures
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Cited by in corpus (12)
- Quantum Coherence as a Resource
- Driven spin dynamics enhances cryptochrome magnetoreception: Towards live quantum sensing
- Quantum Simulation of the Radical Pair Dynamics of the Avian Compass
- Quantum-limited biochemical magnetometers designed using the Fisher information and quantum reaction control
- Hamiltonian Simulation of Quantum Beats in Radical Pairs Undergoing Thermal Relaxation on Near-term Quantum Computers
- Observations about utilitarian coherence in the avian compass
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- Quantum Biometrics with Retinal Photon Counting
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