Quantum-enhanced photoprotection in neuroprotein architectures emerges from collective light-matter interactions

TL;DR

This paper predicts collective quantum optical effects like superradiance in neuroprotein structures, suggesting potential biological roles and applications in neurodegenerative disease contexts.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum model for neuroprotein architectures, demonstrating superradiant states and enhanced quantum yields in biologically relevant structures.

Findings

Superradiant states emerge in simulated neuroprotein structures.

Quantum yields increase with system size, defying classical expectations.

Predicted quantum effects are robust to static disorder at physiological temperatures.

Abstract

We study here the collective quantum optical effect of superradiance in neuroprotein architectures. This phenomenon arises from the interaction of the electromagnetic field with an organized network of tryptophan chromophores, where each can be effectively modeled as a two-level quantum emitter. Building on our prior experimental confirmation of single-photon superradiance in microtubules, we predict that bright superradiant states will also emerge in simulated actin filament bundles and amyloid fibrils, which manifests in the form of high quantum yields that are robust to static disorder up to five times that of room temperature. For microtubules and amyloid fibrils, the quantum yield is enhanced with increasing system size, contrary to the conventional expectations of quantum effects in a thermally equilibrated environment. We conduct our analyses using a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian derived from the Lindblad equation for an open quantum system that describes the interaction of a chromophore network with the electromagnetic field, in the single-photon limit. Our detailed quantum yield predictions in realistic neuroprotein structures -- including analysis of the potential information-processing applications of correlated superradiant and subradiant states at divergent timescales -- provide motivation for a range of in vitro experiments to confirm these quantum enhancements, which can serve in vivo as a mechanism for dissipating or downconverting high-energy UV metabolic photon emissions in intensely oxidative pathological environments, including those found in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.