We study the dynamics of the populations of a model molecule endowed with two sets of rotational levels of different parity, whose ground levels are energetically degenerate and coupled by a constant interaction. The relaxation rate from one set of levels to the other one has an interesting dependence on the average collision frequency of the molecules in the gas. This is interpreted as a quantum Zeno effect due to the decoherence effects provoked by the molecular collisions.
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Entropy (Basel)
January 2025
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd., Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
Polarization mode dispersion can introduce quantum decoherence in polarization encoded information, limiting the range of quantum communications protocols. Therefore, strategies to nullify the effect would reduce quantum decoherence and potentially increase the operational range of such technology. We constructed a quantum model of polarization mode dispersion alongside a two-level absorbing material.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEntropy (Basel)
December 2024
School of Physics, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
The quantum Zeno effect (QZE) is widely employed in quantum engineering due to the issue of frequent measurements freezing a quantum system. In this study, the quantum Zeno factor is introduced to characterize the quantum Zeno capacity of a quantum system. The quantum Zeno factor reveals that the quantum Zeno effect is dependent on the evolution mode of quantum states, which is semi-irrelevant to conventional energy uncertainty and extends the QZE domain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
December 2024
Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4QD, UK.
The radical pair mechanism accounts for the magnetic field sensitivity of a large class of chemical reactions and is hypothesised to underpin numerous magnetosensitive traits in biology, including the avian compass. Traditionally, magnetic field sensitivity in this mechanism is attributed to radical pairs with weakly interacting, well-separated electrons; closely bound pairs were considered unresponsive to weak fields due to arrested spin dynamics. In this study, we challenge this view by examining the FAD-superoxide radical pair within cryptochrome, a protein hypothesised to function as a biological magnetosensor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev Lett
September 2024
AMOS and Department of Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
Single-photon nonlinearity, namely, the change in the response of the system as the result of the interaction with a single photon, is generally considered an inherent property of a single quantum emitter. Although the dependence on the number of emitters is well understood for the case of two-level systems, deterministic operations such as single-photon switching or photon-atom gates inherently require more complex level structures. Here, we theoretically consider single-photon switching in ensembles of emitters with a Λ-level scheme and show that the switching efficiency vanishes with the number of emitters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Bio Mater
August 2024
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cellular environments leads to oxidative stress, which underlies numerous diseases, including inflammatory diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Oxidative stress can be particularly damaging to biological membranes such as those found in mitochondria, which are abundant with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Oxidation of these biological membranes results in concomitant disruption of membrane structure and function, which ultimately leads to cellular dysfunction.
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