Phenomenon of Quantum Entanglement in a System Composed of Two Minimal Protocells.

The quantum mech. self-assembly of two sep. photoactive supramol. systems with different photosynthetic centers was investigated by means of d. functional theory methods. Quantum entangled energy transitions from one subsystem to the other and the assembly of logically controlled artificial minimal protocells were modeled. The systems studied were based on different photoactive sensitizer mols. covalently bonded to a non-canonical oxo-guanine::cytosine supramol. with the precursor of a fatty acid (pFA) mol. attached via Van der Waals forces, all surrounded by water mols. The electron correlation interactions responsible for the weak hydrogen and Van der Waals chem. bonds increased due to the addn. of polar water solvent mols. The distances between the sepd. sensitizer, nucleotide, pFA, and water mols. are comparable to Van der Waals and hydrogen bonding radii. As a result, the overall system becomes compressed, resulting in photo-excited electron tunneling from the sensitizer (bis(4-diphenylamine-2-phenyl)-squarine or 1,4-bis(N,N-dimethylamino)naphthalene) to the pFA mols. Absorption spectra as well as electron transfer trajectories assocd. with the different excited states were calcd. using time dependent d. functional theory methods. The results allow sepn. of the quantum entangled photosynthetic transitions within the same minimal protocell and with the neighboring minimal protocell. The transferred electron is used to cleave a "waste" org. mol. resulting in the formation of the desired product. A two variable, quantum entangled AND logic gate was proposed, consisting of two input photoactive sensitizer mols. and one output (pFA mol.). It is proposed that a similar process might be applied for the destruction of tumor cancer cells or to yield building blocks in artificial cells. [on SciFinder(R)]