title: Quantum biology on the edge of quantum chaos.
abstract: We give a new explanation for why some biological systems can stay quantum coherent for a long time at room temperature, one of the fundamental puzzles of quantum biology. We show that systems with the right level of complexity between chaos and regularity can increase their coherence time by orders of magnitude. Systems near Critical Quantum Chaos or Metal-Insulator Transition (MIT) can have long coherence times and coherent transport at the same time. The new theory tested in a realistic light harvesting system model can reproduce the scaling of critical fluctuations reported in recent experiments. Scaling of return probability in the FMO light harvesting complex shows the signs of universal return probability decay observed at critical MIT. The results may open up new possibilities to design low loss energy and information transport systems in this Poised Realm hovering reversibly between quantum coherence and classicality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Gabor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vattay
authors.affiliation: Vermont Complex Systems Center, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kauffman
authors.affiliation: Department of Signal Processing, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Samuli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Niiranen
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D004735:Energy Transfer / Q000528:radiation effects; D008027:Light; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010788:Photosynthesis / Q000528:radiation effects*; D011789:Quantum Theory; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes