Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2011
Volume 56, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 21–25, 2011; Dallas, Texas
Abstract: S1.00151 : Quantum Mechanisms of Electronic Signal Propagation Along a Microtubule
Author:
Evidence has been accumulating for the involvement of quantum coherence and
entanglement in light harvesting photosynthetic complexes. This tests the
adage that biological systems are too ``warm and wet'' to support quantum
phenomena. Recent advancements in experiment and theory have allowed
investigators to probe other warm systems for coherent phenomena including
polymer chains, bacteriorhodopsin and ion channels. A debate has raged for
over a decade regarding hypothetical quantum coherence/ entanglement in
microtubules. Here we theoretically investigate coherent energy transfer in
microtubules via dipole excitations coupled to the environment in networks
of chromophoric amino acids. We present the spatial structure and
Hamiltonian, containing localized site energies and couplings between
aromatic amino acids, for the microtubule constituent protein tubulin.
Energy transfer is discussed in terms of quantum walk formalism and energy
transfer efficiency. Plausibility arguments are presented for the conditions
favoring a quantum mechanism of electronic signal propagation along a
microtubule.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2011.MAR.S1.151
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