Quantum Information Flow in Microtubule Tryptophan Networks

Quantum Physics arXiv:2602.02868 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 2 Feb 2026] Title:Quantum Information Flow in Microtubule Tryptophan Networks Authors:Lea Gassab, Onur Pusuluk, Travis J.A. Craddock View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum Information Flow in Microtubule Tryptophan Networks, by Lea Gassab and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Networks of aromatic amino acid residues within microtubules, particularly those formed by tryptophan, may serve as pathways for optical information flow. Ultraviolet excitation dynamics in these networks are typically modeled with effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. By extending this approach to a Lindblad master equation that incorporates explicit site geometries and dipole orientations, we track how correlations are generated, routed, and dissipated, while capturing both energy dissipation and information propagation among coupled chromophores. We compare localized injections, fully delocalized preparations, and eigenmode-based initial states. To quantify the emerging quantum-informational structure, we evaluate the $L_1$ norm of coherence, the correlated coherence, and the logarithmic negativity within and between selected chromophore sub-networks. The results reveal a strong dependence of both the direction and persistence of information flow on the type of initial preparation. Superradiant components drive the rapid export of correlations to the environment, whereas subradiant components retain them and slow their leakage. Embedding single tubulin units into larger dimers and spirals reshapes pairwise correlation maps and enables site-selective routing. Scaling to larger ordered lattices strengthens both export and retention channels, whereas static energetic and structural disorder suppresses long-range transport and reduces overall correlation transfer. These findings provide a Lindbladian picture of information flow in cytoskeletal chromophore networks and identify structural and dynamical conditions that transiently preserve nonclassical correlations in microtubules. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2602.02868 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2602.02868v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.02868 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Lea Gassab [view email] [v1] Mon, 2 Feb 2026 22:23:25 UTC (6,534 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum Information Flow in Microtubule Tryptophan Networks, by Lea Gassab and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-02 Change to browse by: physics physics.bio-ph References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)