Quantum and classical processes combine to solve mazes

MIT Technology Review : In cells, energy is rapidly transported through large, complex protein matrices with almost no energy loss. Filippo Caruso of the University of Florence in Italy and his colleagues have shown that the mechanism involved in energy transfer across these maze-like proteins likely combines quantum and classical effects. By themselves, both quantum and classical solutions to finding paths through mazes suffer from loss of energy. Caruso’s team combined the simultaneous evaluation of multiple paths of the quantum process with the random jumps of the classical. The resulting hybrid process outperformed both individual ones. The researchers created various mazes from waveguides spaced at different distances from each other. When the waveguides were close together, light took full advantage of quantum effects; when further apart, classical noise disrupted the system. Thus the researchers were able to measure for the best mixing of quantum and classical properties. Their system still doesn’t compare with the efficiency of the energy transfer in proteins, but it does provide some potential insight into the process.