The quantum Zeno effect immunizes the avian compass against the deleterious effects of exchange and dipolar interactions

Magnetic-sensitive radical-ion-pair reactions are understood to underlie the biochemical magnetic compass used by avian species for navigation. Recent experiments have provided growing evidence for the radical-ion-pair magnetoreception mechanism, while recent theoretical advances have unravelled the quantum nature of radical-ion-pair reactions, which were shown to manifest a host of quantum-information-science concepts and effects, like quantum measurement, quantum jumps and the quantum Zeno effect. We here show that the quantum Zeno effect provides for the robustness of the avian compass mechanism, and immunizes its magnetic and angular sensitivity against the deleterious and molecule-specific exchange and dipolar interactions. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.