Frontiers of quantum physics

Abstract:

In artificial systems, quantum superposition and entanglement typically decay rapidly unless cryogenic temperatures are used. Could life have evolved to exploit such delicate phenomena? Certain migratory birds have the ability to sense very subtle variations in Earth's magnetic field. Here we apply quantum information theory and the widely accepted "radical pair" model to analyze recent experimental observations of the avian compass. We find that superposition and entanglement are sustained in this living system for at least tens of microseconds, exceeding the durations achieved in the best comparable man-made molecular systems. This conclusion is starkly at variance with the view that life is too "warm and wet" for such quantum phenomena to endure.

Abstract:

We use entanglement to investigate the transition from vortex-liquid phase to vortex-lattice phase in a weakly interacting rotating Bose-Einstein condensate. For the torus geometry, the ground-state entanglement spectrum is analyzed to distinguish these two phases. The low-lying part of the ground-state entanglement spectrum, as well as the behavior of its lowest level, changes clearly when the transition occurs. For the sphere geometry, the entanglement gap in the conformal limit is also studied. We also show that the decrease in entanglement between particles can be regarded as a signal of the transition. © 2011 American Physical Society.