Seminar
Tuesday, 01 December, 2009
Group seminar LMU: Quantum control and entanglement in avian chemical compass
Tuesday, 01.12.2009 10 a.m. (s.t.) in H107, Fakultät für Physik LMU
Dr. Jianming Cai, Quantum Information Group, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Universität Innsbruck
The radical pair mechanism is one of the two main hypotheses to explain the navigability of animals in weak magnetic fields, enabling e.g. birds to see the Earth's magnetic field. It also plays an essential role in the field of spin chemistry. Here, we show how quantum control can be used to either enhance or reduce the performance of such a chemical compass, providing a route to further test this hypothesis experimentally. We calculate the dynamics of quantum entanglement in this model, and demonstrate intriguing connections between radical-pair entanglement and the magnetic field sensitivity of the compass. Beyond their immediate application to the radical pair mechanism, these results also demonstrate how state-of-art quantum technologies could potentially be used to probe and control biological functions in living.