Comment on "Quantum Control and Entanglement in a Chemical Compass"

I. K. Kominis

Published 2010-10-07, updated 2011-02-19Version 4

In this comment we show that the avian compass entanglement considerations of J. Cai, G. G. Guerreschi and H. J. Briegel (Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 220502 (2010)) result in unphysical predictions on the magnetic sensitivity of this biochemical sensor. As well known from a series of papers on precision measurements and detailed derivations of standard quantum limits, not taking into account decoherence results in an overestimate of the entanglement lifetime, and this is the case at hand. The entanglement lifetime is wrongly assumed by the authors to be independent of the reaction time (the inverse of the recombination rate) and hence it is grossly overestimated. This is so because the spin coherence lifetime is limited by the reaction time, and the entanglement lifetime cannot be any longer.