https://mayalucia.dev/tags/quantum/ Recent content in Quantum on MayaLucIA Hugo -- 0.156.0 en-us Wed, 25 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0100 https://mayalucia.dev/modules/mayajiva/ring-attractor/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0100 https://mayalucia.dev/modules/mayajiva/ring-attractor/ <p>How does an insect brain represent a compass heading? The ring attractor is a neural circuit where activity forms a bump that rotates around a ring of neurons, tracking the animal&rsquo;s heading. In <em>Drosophila</em>, this circuit lives in the ellipsoid body (E-PG neurons). In our model, it serves as the bridge between quantum chemistry and behaviour.</p> <h2 id="the-radical-pair-compass">The Radical-Pair Compass</h2> <p>The compass sensor models cryptochrome &mdash; a flavoprotein in the insect eye that forms radical pairs under blue light. The singlet yield of the radical pair depends on the orientation of the Earth&rsquo;s magnetic field relative to the molecule&rsquo;s hyperfine axis. This anisotropy is tiny (a few percent) but sufficient for navigation.</p>