Quantum information in the Posner model of quantum cognition

Abstract

Matthew Fisher recently postulated a mechanism by which quantum phenomena could influence cognition: Phosphorus nuclear spins may resist decoherence for long times, especially when in Posner molecules. The spins would serve as biological qubits. We imagine that Fisher postulates correctly. How adroitly could biological systems process quantum information (QI)? We establish a framework for answering. Additionally, we construct applications of biological qubits to quantum error correction, quantum communication, and quantum computation. First, we posit how the QI encoded by the spins transforms as Posner molecules form. The transformation points to a natural computational basis for qubits in Posner molecules. From the basis, we construct a quantum code that detects arbitrary single-qubit errors. Each molecule encodes one qutrit. Shifting from information storage to computation, we define the model of Posner quantum computation. To illustrate the model's quantum-communication ability, we show how it can teleport information incoherently: A state's weights are teleported. Dephasing results from the entangling operation's simulation of a coarse-grained Bell measurement. Whether Posner quantum computation is universal remains an open question. However, the model's operations can efficiently prepare a Posner state usable as a resource in universal measurement-based quantum computation. The state results from deforming the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) state and is a projected entangled-pair state (PEPS). Finally, we show that entanglement can affect molecular-binding rates, boosting a binding probability from 33.6% to 100% in an example. This work opens the door for the QI-theoretic analysis of biological qubits and Posner molecules.

Published version

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Measurement Protected Quantum Phases
• Robust encoding of a qubit in a molecule
• Conformal invariance and quantum non-locality in critical hybrid circuits
• Tight bounds on the convergence of noisy random circuits to the uniform distribution
• Decodable hybrid dynamics of open quantum systems with Z_2 symmetry
• Interferometric-Spectroscopy With Quantum-Light; Revealing Out-of-Time-Ordering Correlators
• Quantum Models of Consciousness from a Quantum Information Science Perspective
• Strategies for implementing quantum error correction in molecular rotation
• Nonlinear Bell inequality for macroscopic measurements
• Dynamical symmetrization of the state of identical particles
• Entanglement and coherence in pure and doped Posner molecules