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Quantum Information Processing in the Wall of Cytoskeletal Microtubules

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Abstract

Microtubules (MT) are composed of 13 protofilaments, each of which is a series of two-state tubulin dimers. In the MT wall, these dimers can be pictured as “lattice” sites similar to crystal lattices. Based on the pseudo-spin model, two different location states of the mobile electron in each dimer are proposed. Accordingly, the MT wall is described as an anisotropic two-dimensional (2D) pseudo-spin system considering a periodic triangular “lattice”. Because three different “spin-spin” interactions in each cell exist periodically in the whole MT wall, the system may be shown to be an array of three types of two-pseudo-spin-state dimers. For the above-mentioned condition, the processing of quantum information is presented by using the scheme developed by Lloyd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, People’s Republic of China

    Chunhua Shi, Xijun Qiu & Tongcheng Wu

  2. Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, People’s Republic of China

    Ruxin Li

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  1. Chunhua Shi
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  2. Xijun Qiu
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  3. Tongcheng Wu
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  4. Ruxin Li
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Correspondence to Chunhua Shi.

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Shi, C., Qiu, X., Wu, T. et al. Quantum Information Processing in the Wall of Cytoskeletal Microtubules. J Biol Phys 32, 413–420 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10867-006-9025-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10867-006-9025-9

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