The Quantum Zeno Effect Immunizes the Avian Compass Against the Deleterious Effects of Exchange and Dipolar Interactions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the quantum Zeno effect enhances the robustness of the avian magnetic compass by protecting it against disruptive molecular interactions, advancing understanding of quantum effects in biological navigation.

Contribution

It reveals how the quantum Zeno effect can immunize the avian compass mechanism from exchange and dipolar interactions, a novel insight into quantum biology.

Findings

Quantum Zeno effect stabilizes the radical-ion-pair reactions.

Robustness of magnetic sensitivity against molecular interactions.

Supports quantum-based explanation of avian magnetoreception.

Abstract

Magnetic-sensitive radical-ion-pair reactions are understood to underlie the biochemical magnetic compass used by avian species for navigation. Recent experiments have provided growing evidence for the radical-ion-pair magnetoreception mechanism, while recent theoretical advances have unravelled the quantum nature of radical-ion-pair reactions, which were shown to manifest a host of quantum-information-science concepts and effects, like quantum measurement, quantum jumps and the quantum Zeno effect. We here show that the quantum Zeno effect provides for the robustness of the avian compass mechanism, and immunizes it's magnetic and angular sensitivity against the deleterious and molecule-specific exchange and dipolar interactions.