State Transitions and Decoherence in the Avian Compass

The radical pair model has been successful in explaining behavioral characteristics of the geomagnetic compass believed to underlie the navigation capability of certain avian species. In this study, the spin dynamics of the radical pair model and decoherence therein are interpreted from a microscopic state transition point of view. This helps to elucidate the interplay between the hyperfine and Zeeman interactions that enables the avian compass, and the distinctive effects of nuclear and environmental decoherence on it. Using a quantum information theoretic quantifier of coherence, we find that nuclear decoherence induces new structure in the spin dynamics without materially affecting the compass action; environmental decoherence, on the other hand, completely disrupts it.