What is Life? Open Quantum Systems Approach

Abstract

Since a living system is fundamentally open (an isolated biosystem is dead), the theory of open quantum systems is the most powerful tool for life-modeling. In this chapter, we turn to the famous Schrödinger book “What is life?” and reformulate his speculations in terms of this theory. Schrödinger stressed that order stability is one of the characteristic features of biosystems. Entropy can be used as a quantitative measure of order. Then he noted that in physical systems, entropy has the tendency to increase (the Second Law of Thermodynamics for isolated classical systems and dissipation in open classical and quantum systems). In contrast, biosystems beat this tendency. Schrödinger asked: “How?” Quantum information and open systems theory may give the answer to this fundamental question of modern science.