Coherence Dispersion and Temperature Scales in a Quantum-Biology Toy Model

Abstract: In this work, we investigate how quantum coherence can scatter among the several off-diagonal elements of an arbitrary quantum state, defining coherence dispersion ($Δ{\rm c}$). It turns out that this easily computable quantity is maximized for intermediate values of an appropriate entropy, a prevalent signature of complexity quantifiers across different fields, from linguistics and information science to evolutionary biology. By focusing on out-of-equilibrium systems, we use the developed framework to address a simplified model of cellular energetics, involving remanent coherence. Within the context of this model, the precise energy of 30.5 kJ/mol (the yield of ATP-ADP conversion) causes the temperature range where $Δ{\rm c}$ is maximized to be compatible with temperatures for which unicellular life is reported to exist. Low levels of coherence suffice to support this conclusion.