On the Potential of Microtubules for Scalable Quantum Computation

"The basic underlying mechanism for dissipation-free energy and signal transduction along the MT is the formation of appropriate solitonic dipole states in the protein dimer walls of the MT, which are reminiscent of the quantum coherent states in the Fröhlich-Davydov approach."

II. SOLITONIC EFFECTS IN MICROTUBULES AND OBSERVABLE BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS, p. 8

The model posits that coherent, self-organized waves emerge from interacting dipole populations, supporting macroscopic coordination within a finite coherence window—an emergent dynamics signature relevant to system-wide integration in consciousness science.

Tables

Table I (p. 18) : TABLE I. Physical parameters relevant to quantum effects in biological systems. In this table we collect all physical parameter values salient to our calculations and assumptions used in prior sections throughout the present text.

"A similar role, as transporters of the passing of time, characterizes the snoidal solitonic waves of the dipole quanta in MT. There is a really good analogy between MT and turret clocks."

VI. CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK, p. 22

The authors explicitly frame MT-propagating waves as intrinsic timekeepers, aligning with temporal coordination mechanisms (e.g., binding/segmentation) hypothesized to support conscious processing in biological systems.

"In this context we have identified the fundamental hexagonal unit of the honeycomb lattice representing the various tubulin heterodimer dipole arrangements in an MT (see fig. 4), with the fundamental unit of information storage, the so-called quDit..."

VI. CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK, p. 22

This specifies an explicit representational primitive (quDit) and coding scheme in a biological substrate—directly relevant to how information might be structured, stored, and accessed in systems hypothesized to support consciousness.

Figures

Fig. 7 (p. 12) : Schematic of an MT/MAP network that could implement an XOR-like operation, illustrating how representational structures and operations might be realized in the substrate.

"In addition to efficient energy transport, the presence of solitonic structures in MT may imply their role as biological logic gates, as proposed initially in [4], and elaborated further, from a quantum computational viewpoint in [1] (See fig. 7, left panel). Although MT do not themselves branch, the analogue of a ‘logic’ XOR gate (see Fig. 7, right panel) by MT arrangements in cells has been proposed with microtubule associated proteins (MAPs) that connect the various MTs in a network..."

III. MICROTUBULAR NETWORKS AS LOGIC GATES, p. 12

Describes a concrete routing/gating mechanism (MT-to-MT soliton transfer via MAPs) that aligns with selective routing and control of information flow—core features of conscious access theories.

Figures

Fig. 7 (p. 12) : Illustrates selective gating via MAP-mediated soliton transfer, providing a mechanistic proposal for controlled information routing.