Modern Anesthetic Ethers Demonstrate Quantum Interactions with Entangled Photons

Ryan K Burdick,Theodore Goodson,Juan P Villabona-Monsalve,George A Mashour

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-47651-1

Ryan K Burdick, Theodore Goodson + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47651-1

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Aug 5, 2019
Citations: 16	License type: open-access

Affiliation: University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

Abstract

Despite decades of research, the mechanism of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness remains incompletely understood, with some advocating for a quantum mechanical basis. Despite associations between general anesthesia and changes in physical properties such as electron spin, there has been no empirical demonstration that general anesthetics are capable of functional quantum interactions. In this work, we studied the linear and non-linear optical properties of the halogenated ethers sevoflurane (SEVO) and isoflurane (ISO), using UV-Vis spectroscopy, time dependent-density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations, classical two-photon spectroscopy, and entangled two-photon spectroscopy. We show that both of these halogenated ethers interact with pairs of 800 nm entangled photons while neither interact with 800 nm classical photons. By contrast, nonhalogenated diethyl ether does not interact with entangled photons. This is the first experimental evidence that halogenated anesthetics can directly undergo quantum interaction mechanisms, offering a new approach to understanding their physicochemical properties.

Highlights

Despite decades of research, the mechanism of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness remains incompletely understood, with some advocating for a quantum mechanical basis
Other studies have suggested that anesthetics may undergo a quantum interaction mechanism to induce unconsciousness[2,3,4,5], but—unlike the foundational empirical studies identifying binding between anesthetics and protein targets—it is unclear if general anesthetics can interact directly with quantum systems, including those involving long-distance entanglement
Previous studies on the mechanism of action of anesthetics have focused on anesthetics’ ability to interact with macromolecules such as lipid bilayers and proteins, our results show that individual anesthetic molecules can interact with photons

Summary

Introduction

The mechanism of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness remains incompletely understood, with some advocating for a quantum mechanical basis. We studied the linear and non-linear optical properties of the halogenated ethers sevoflurane (SEVO) and isoflurane (ISO), using UV-Vis spectroscopy, time dependent-density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations, classical two-photon spectroscopy, and entangled two-photon spectroscopy. By contrast, nonhalogenated diethyl ether does not interact with entangled photons This is the first experimental evidence that halogenated anesthetics can directly undergo quantum interaction mechanisms, offering a new approach to understanding their physicochemical properties. The interaction mechanisms of a molecule with entangled photons vs classical photons are different, as shown in previous work by Lee et al.[39] Both interaction processes must be investigated for a complete understanding of the optical properties of the molecule. Diethyl ether (a nonhalogenated ether used for reference) did not, showing a unique and unexpected sensitivity to a quantum correlated system in association with halogenation

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