TY - JOUR
T1 - Chemical compass behaviour at microtesla magnetic fields strengthens the radical pair hypothesis of avian magnetoreception
AU - Kerpal, Christian
AU - Richert, Sabine
AU - Storey, Jonathan G.
AU - Pillai, Smitha
AU - Liddell, Paul A.
AU - Gust, Devens
AU - Mackenzie, Stuart R.
AU - Hore, P. J.
AU - Timmel, Christiane R.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank D.E. Manolopoulos and T. Player for helpful discussions. C.K. is grateful for a DFG Research Fellowship (Project No. 256837888). The authors would like to thank the EPSRC (EPL011972/1), DARPA (QuBE: N66001-10-1-4061) and the US Air Force (USAF) Office of Scientific Research (Air Force Materiel Command, USAF Award No. FA9550-14-1-0095) for financial support.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - The fact that many animals, including migratory birds, use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation and compass-navigation is fascinating and puzzling in equal measure. The physical origin of these phenomena has not yet been fully understood, but arguably the most likely hypothesis is based on the radical pair mechanism (RPM). Whilst the theoretical framework of the RPM is well-established, most experimental investigations have been conducted at fields several orders of magnitude stronger than the Earth’s. Here we use transient absorption spectroscopy to demonstrate a pronounced orientation-dependence of the magnetic field response of a molecular triad system in the field region relevant to avian magnetoreception. The chemical compass response exhibits the properties of an inclination compass as found in migratory birds. The results underline the feasibility of a radical pair based avian compass and also provide further guidelines for the design and operation of exploitable chemical compass systems.
AB - The fact that many animals, including migratory birds, use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation and compass-navigation is fascinating and puzzling in equal measure. The physical origin of these phenomena has not yet been fully understood, but arguably the most likely hypothesis is based on the radical pair mechanism (RPM). Whilst the theoretical framework of the RPM is well-established, most experimental investigations have been conducted at fields several orders of magnitude stronger than the Earth’s. Here we use transient absorption spectroscopy to demonstrate a pronounced orientation-dependence of the magnetic field response of a molecular triad system in the field region relevant to avian magnetoreception. The chemical compass response exhibits the properties of an inclination compass as found in migratory birds. The results underline the feasibility of a radical pair based avian compass and also provide further guidelines for the design and operation of exploitable chemical compass systems.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-019-11655-2
DO - 10.1038/s41467-019-11655-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 31420558
AN - SCOPUS:85070842120
VL - 10
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
IS - 1
M1 - 3707
ER -