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arXiv:0912.2455

Will recently proposed experiments be able to demonstrate quantum behavior of entire living organisms?

C. L. Herzenberg

Published Dec 12, 2009• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recently proposed experiments consider creating and observing the quantum superposition of small living organisms. Those proposed experiments are examined here for feasibility on the basis of results of earlier studies identifying a boundary separating obligatory classical behavior from quantum behavior. It appears that the proposed experiments may be expected to succeed for the case of viruses, but most probably fail for the case of the appreciably larger organisms that are also considered.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.0912.2455

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Recently proposed experiments consider creating and observing the quantum superposition of small living organisms. Those proposed experiments are examined here for feasibility on the basis of results of earlier studies identifying a boundary separating obligatory classical behavior from quantum behavior. It appears that the proposed experiments may be expected to succeed for the case of viruses, but most probably fail for the case of the appreciably larger organisms that are also considered.
The most striking feature of quantum mechanics is the existence of superposition states, where an object appears to be in different situations at the same time. The existence of such states has been previously tested with small objects, such as atoms, ions, electrons and photons (Zoller et al 2005 Eur. Phys. J. D 36 203–28), and even with molecules (Arndt et al 1999 Nature 401 680–2). More recently, it has been shown that it is possible to create superpositions of collections of photons (Deléglise et al 2008 Nature 455 510–14), atoms (Hammerer et al 2008 arXiv:0807.3358) or Cooper pairs (Friedman et al 2000 Nature 406 43–6). Very recent progress in optomechanical systems may soon allow us to create superpositions of even larger objects, such as micro-sized mirrors or cantilevers (Marshall et al 2003 Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 130401; Kippenberg and Vahala 2008 Science 321 1172–6; Marquardt and Girvin 2009 Physics 2 40; Favero and Karrai 2009 Nature Photon. 3 201–5), and thus to test quantum mechanical phenomena at larger scales. Here we propose a method to cool down and create quantum superpositions of the motion of sub-wavelength, arbitrarily shaped dielectric objects trapped inside a high-finesse cavity at a very low pressure. Our method is ideally suited for the smallest living organisms, such as viruses, which survive under low-vacuum pressures (Rothschild and Mancinelli 2001 Nature 406 1092–101) and optically behave as dielectric objects (Ashkin and Dziedzic 1987 Science 235 1517–20). This opens up the possibility of testing the quantum nature of living organisms by creating quantum superposition states in very much the same spirit as the original Schrödinger's cat 'gedanken' paradigm (Schrödinger 1935 Naturwissenschaften 23 807–12, 823–8, 844–9). We anticipate that our paper will be a starting point for experimentally addressing fundamental questions, such as the role of life and consciousness in quantum mechanics.
Abstract Progress in the experimental nano-sciences and laser cooling has led to the manipulation of material objects with sizes and temperatures such that quantum effects start to appear. This range of sizes coincides with that of the smallest bacteria as well as of the largest viruses, and is often considered to be the boundary between living and nonliving entities. Experiments are rapidly progressing towards putting micro-organisms into quantum superposition states in a controlled manner, resulting in nontrivial quantum effects that we normally do not attribute to living systems. In order to set limits for the occurrence of such effects, I model micro-organisms quantum mechanically and investigate how relevant physical properties are modified from their classical bulk values in the presence of classical self-gravity. The results show that a transition between quantum-like and classical behavior exists right at sizes corresponding to the broad boundary between the smallest bacteria and the largest giant viruses.
The question whether quantum mechanics is complete and the nature of the transition between quantum mechanics and classical mechanics have intrigued physicists for decades. There have been many experimental breakthroughs in creating larger and larger quantum superposition and entangled states since Erwin Schrödinger proposed his famous thought experiment of putting a cat in a superposition of both alive and dead states in 1935. Remarkably, recent developments in quantum optomechanics and electromechanics may lead to the realisation of quantum superposition of living microbes soon. Recent evidence also suggests that quantum coherence may play an important role in several biological processes. In this review, we first give a brief introduction to basic concepts in quantum mechanics and the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment. We then review developments in creating quantum superposition and entangled states and the realisation of quantum teleportation. Non-trivial quantum effects in photosynthetic light harvesting and avian magnetoreception are also discussed. At last, we review recent proposals to realise quantum superposition, entanglement and state teleportation of micro-organisms, such as viruses and bacteria.
A recently proposed experiment considers the possibility of reaching regimes where quantum behavior might be observed in nanomechanical systems. This proposed experiment is examined here for feasibility on the basis of results of earlier studies identifying a boundary separating obligatory classical behavior from quantum behavior based on effects dependent on large scale properties of the universe. Calculations indicate that cosmologically induced effects leading to a quantum to classical transition will not interfere with the proposed experiment at the level at which it is described. Thus, this experiment may be expected to be able to succeed for the case of nanomechanical systems such as the 50 nanometer radius spheres under consideration; however, the success of similar experiments for larger micro scale systems may be ruled out.