On Macroscopic Quantum Phenomena in Biomolecules and Cells: From Levinthal to Hopfield

Figure 3

The black dot represents one-dimensional “particle” (macromolecular electronic-conformational-vibrational system) which is excited to the upper hypersurface (electronic excited state 𝐸₁) and according to Ehrenfest theorem is descended down the slope towards the local excited state minimum, conformation 𝑘^′. Then, the “particle” is deexcited to the lower hypersurface (electronic ground state 𝐸_𝑔) when according to Ehrenfest theorem a superposition of the two possible “particle” states depicted by 𝑘^′ and 𝑘^′′ is established, with subsequent coherent descent of the “particle” down both slopes of the barrier (which can be thought of as the interference of the two paths along the barrier walls) and final decoherence into local ground state minima 𝑘₁ and 𝑘₂ (with assumption that environmental influence dominates the dynamics in the vicinity of the local minima, corresponding to the acquired conformations 𝑘₁ and 𝑘₂—with their statistical weights being changed, as a net effect). For more details see [47].