Avian magnetoreception is the capacity for avians to sense the direction of the Earth's magnetic field. Discovered more than forty years ago, it has attracted intensive studies over the years. One promising model ...Avian magnetoreception is the capacity for avians to sense the direction of the Earth's magnetic field. Discovered more than forty years ago, it has attracted intensive studies over the years. One promising model for describing this capacity in avians is the widely used reference-and-probe model where radical pairs within the eyes of bird combines to form singlet and triplet quantum states.The yield depends on the angle between the Earth's magnetic field and the molecules' axis, hence the relative value of yield of the singlet state or triplet state enables avians to sense the direction. Here we report the experimental demonstration of avian magnetoreception in a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processor. It is shown clearly from the experiment that the yield of the singlet state attains maximum when it is normal to the Earth's magnetic field, and the experimental results agree with theory very well.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11175094 and 91221205)the National Basic Research Program of China(Grant No 2015CB921002)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(Grant No.2015M571011).
文摘Avian magnetoreception is the capacity for avians to sense the direction of the Earth's magnetic field. Discovered more than forty years ago, it has attracted intensive studies over the years. One promising model for describing this capacity in avians is the widely used reference-and-probe model where radical pairs within the eyes of bird combines to form singlet and triplet quantum states.The yield depends on the angle between the Earth's magnetic field and the molecules' axis, hence the relative value of yield of the singlet state or triplet state enables avians to sense the direction. Here we report the experimental demonstration of avian magnetoreception in a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processor. It is shown clearly from the experiment that the yield of the singlet state attains maximum when it is normal to the Earth's magnetic field, and the experimental results agree with theory very well.
