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Tubulin dipole moment, dielectric constant and quantum behavior: computer simulations, experimental results and suggestions

Andreas Mershin·Alexandre A. Kolomenski·Hans A. Schuessler·Dimitri V. Nanopoulos
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Abstract

We used computer simulation to calculate the electric dipole moments of the alpha and beta tubulin monomers and dimer and found those to be |palpha|=552D, |pbeta|=1193D and |palpha-beta|=1740D respectively. Independent surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and refractometry measurements of the high-frequency dielectric constant and polarizability strongly corroborated our previous SPR-derived results giving delta-n/delta-c ~1.800x10^-3 ml/mg. The refractive index of tubulin was measured to be n_tub ~2.90 and the high frequency tubulin dielectric constant kappa_tub ~8.41 while the high-frequency polarizability was found to be alpha_tub ~ 2.1x10^-33 C m^2/V. Methods for the experimental determination of the low-frequency p are explored as well as ways to test the often conjectured quantum coherence and entanglement properties of tubulin. Biobits, bioqubits and other applications to bioelectronics are discussed.

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Andreas Mershin, Alexandre A. Kolomenski, Hans A. Schuessler, Dimitri V. Nanopoulos. 2004-02-10. Tubulin dipole moment, dielectric constant and quantum behavior: computer simulations, experimental results and suggestions. https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0402053

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