NL2671

Froehlich Theory

NL2671

Froehlich Theory

Starting in the late 1960s and continuing until his death in 1991, Herbert Froehlich developed a theory of biological coherence that was based on quantum interactions between dipolar constituents of biomolecules. Froehlich advocated momentum-space correlations within a living system such as a membrane, a cell or an organism. This dynamic order would be a characteristic feature that distinguishes living systems from inanimate matter. The key assumptions of Froehlichs theory can be listed as follows: (a) a continuous supply of metabolic energy (also referred to as energy pumping) above a threshold level, (b) the presence of thermal noise due to physiological temperature, (c) internal organization of the biosystem that promotes functional features, (d) the existence of a large transmembrane potential difference, and (e) a nonlinear interaction between two or more types of degrees of freedom. As a result of these nonlinear interactions, in addition to the global minimum that characterizes a biological system in its non-living state, a metastable energy minimum is achieved in the living state. The Froehlich model of biological coherence is based on a condensate of quanta of collective polar vibrations. It is a non-equilibrium property due to the interactions of the system with both the surrounding heat bath and an energy supply (see Fig.1). The energy is channeled into a single collective mode that becomes strongly excited. Most importantly, the Froehlich model relies on the nonlinearity of internal vibrational mode interactions and in this respect is somewhat reminiscent of the laser action principle. Associated with this dynamically ordered macroscopic quantum state is the emergence of polarization due to the ordering of dipoles in bio-molecules such as membrane head groups. Furthermore, Froehlich predicted the generation of coherent modes of excitation such as dipole oscillations in the microwave frequency range. Nonlinear interactions between dynamic degrees of freedom were predicted to result in the local stability of the polarized state and in the long-range frequency-selective interactions between two systems with these properties. Figure 1 Illustration of the Froehlich Model.

In terms of concrete realizations of this model, Froehlich placed an emphasis on the presence of dipole moments in many biomolecular systems which would then oscillate in synchrony in the frequency range of 1011-1012 Hz due to their non-linear interactions. Consequently, due to the resonant dipole-dipole coupling in a narrow frequency range, the entire biological system can be seen as a giant oscillating dipole. An alternative picture developed within the Froehlich theory was that of a Bose-Einstein condensation in the space of dipole oscillations. The Hamiltonian postulated by Wu and Austin (1977) takes the form:
H=

a
i

i i ai

b b + P
i i i i i

i i

Pi +

1 a i a j bk + * a j a i bk + 2 i, j,k

) (b a
i i, j

+ * bi a j +

) (P a
i i, j

+ * Pi a j

(1) , and ( Pi , Pi ) are, respectively, the cell, heat-bath, and energy-pump creation and where annihilation (boson-type) operators. A kinetic rate equation was derived for this model that indicates Bose-type condensation in the frequency domain with a stationary occupation number dependence of the dipole modes given by:

(a i , a i ) ,

(bi , bi )

N i = e ( i ) 1

(2)

The nonlinear coupling comes from the dipole-phonon interaction proportional to . Provided that the oscillating dipoles are within a narrow band of resonance frequencies ( min i max ) and that the coupling constants , , and are large enough, strong, long-range (~ 1 m) attractive forces are expected to act between the dipoles. The effective Froehlich potential between two interacting dipoles which initially vibrate with frequencies 1 and 2 is given by

U (r ) =

E r
3

F r6

(3)

NL2671

Froehlich Theory

where F is the London-van der Walls coefficient and E is the long range constant given by
E= he 2 Z | A | 4 M 1 1 ' ( ) ' ( ) +

(4)

where M is the mass of a dipole, r is the dipole-dipole spacing, e is the electron charge, Z is the number of elementary charges on each dipole, A is an angle constant, and () is the real part of the frequency-dependent dielectric constant. The quantities are the new dipole vibration frequencies
4 1 0 1 2 2 = 12 + 2 12 2 + 4 2 ( ' ) 2

1/ 2

1/ 2

(5)

. In the resonant frequency case, the effective interaction energy between two oscillating Mr 3 dipoles was found to be long-range depending on distance as r-3. Most of the expected condensation of dipolar vibrations was envisaged by Froehlich to take place in the cell membrane due to its strong potential on the order of 10-100 mV across the thickness of 5-10 nm giving an electric field intensity of 1-20 106 V/m. The resultant dipole-dipole interactions were calculated to show a resonant long-range order at a high frequency range of 1011-1012 Hz with a propagation velocity of about 103 m/s. In addition to membrane dipoles, several other candidates for Froehlich coherence were considered, namely: double ionic layers, dipoles of DNA and RNA molecules, plasmon oscillations of free ions in the cytoplasm, etc. Applications of the Froehlich theory were made to cancer proliferation where a shift in the resonant frequency was seen to affect the cell-cell signaling, the brain waves, and enzymatic chemical reactions. Various experiments were reported that appeared to demonstrate the sensitivity of metabolic processes to certain frequencies of electromagnetic radiation above the expected Boltzmann probability level. Raman scattering experiments of Webb (1980) found non-thermal effects in E.Coli but could not be reproduced by other labs. Irradiation by millimiter waves of yeast cells showed increased growth at specific frequencies (Grundler 1981). Rouleaux formation of human erythrocytes (Rowlands et al; 1983) was explained in terms of Froehlichs resonant dipole-dipole attraction (Paul et al 1983) but did not rule out standard coagulation processes. While some of these experiments illustrate non-thermal effects in living matter that would require non-linear and non-equilibrium interactions for explanation, no unambiguous experimental proof has been furnished to date to support Froehlichs hypothesis. It is interesting to note that while Froehlich sought evidence for frequency selection in biological systems, another famous physicist, A.S. Davydov tried to find spatial localization of vibrational energy in biological systems such as DNA and peptides. There is a conceptual link between these two approaches as shown by Tuszynski et al (1983) and it involves self-focusing in reciprocal (Froehlich) or real space (Davydov), respectively. JACK A. TUSZYNSKI See also Davydovs soliton, Bose-Einstein condensation, synergetics, cluster coagulation Further Reading Davydov, A.S. 1982. Biology and Quantum Mechanics. Oxford: Pergamon Press Froehlich, H. 1968. Int. J. Quant. Chem., 2: 641-649 Froehlich, H. 1972. Phys. Lett., 39A: 153-5 Froehlich, H. 1980. Adv. In Electronics and Electron Physics, 53: 85-152

where 0 = e

Z1Z 2

NL2671

Froehlich Theory

Grundler, W., Eisenberg, C.P., and Sewchand, L.S. 1983. J. Biol. Phys., 11: 1 Paul, R., Chatterjee, R., Tuszynski, J.A., and Fritz, O.G. 1983. J. theor. Biol., 104: 169 Tuszynski, J.A., Paul, R., Chatterjee, R., and Sreenivasan, S.R. 1983. Phys. Rev. A, 30: 2666 Webb, S.J. 1980. Phys. Rep., 60: 201 Wu, T.M., and Austin, S. 1977. Phys.Lett A, 64: 151