Driven Radical Motion Enhances Cryptochrome Magnetoreception: Toward Live Quantum Sensing

Overview

Journal J Phys Chem Lett

Publisher American Chemical Society

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2022 Nov 4

PMID 36332112

Authors

Luke D Smith

Farhan T Chowdhury

Iona Peasgood

Nahnsu Dawkins

Daniel R Kattnig

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The mechanism underlying magnetoreception has long eluded explanation. A popular hypothesis attributes this sense to the quantum coherent spin dynamics and spin-selective recombination reactions of radical pairs in the protein cryptochrome. However, concerns about the validity of the hypothesis have been raised because unavoidable inter-radical interactions, such as the strong electron-electron dipolar coupling, appear to suppress its sensitivity. We demonstrate that sensitivity can be restored by driving the spin system through a modulation of the inter-radical distance. It is shown that this dynamical process markedly enhances geomagnetic field sensitivity in strongly coupled radical pairs via Landau-Zener-Stückelberg-Majorana transitions between singlet and triplet states. These findings suggest that a "live" harmonically driven magnetoreceptor can be more sensitive than its "dead" static counterpart.

Citing Articles

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Spin Dynamics of Radical Pairs Using the Stochastic Schrödinger Equation in .

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Majorana's approach to nonadiabatic transitions validates the adiabatic-impulse approximation.

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Effects of inter-radical interactions and scavenging radicals on magnetosensitivity: spin dynamics simulations of proposed radical pairs.

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