I What does this tricky quantum mechanics equation mean?

[Ali Beladi]

I'm a current high school student and I’m aspiring to become a biochemist. I’m at the moment writing an article about adaptive mutations but there is a lot of tricky quantum mechanics in it which I simply don't get. I have asked everyone and got no answer until someone recommended to ask it in a forum. I would more than grateful if someone could actually explain to me what on Earth is going on in the diagram I have shown below. Here is also a link to the article if you want extra context or just give it a read because it is very interesting:https://www.academia.edu/13243691/A_quantum_mechanical_model_of_adaptive_mutation

 

[sysprog]

@Ali Beladi I'm too zaly to even type correctly $-$ I think that you're right to wonder $-$ I think that biochemical consequences of quantum decoherence may be a lot to try to digest all at once.

 

[atyy]

If you read the equations' symbols as if they were labels for "classically" or "common sensically" existing things, the equations would somewhat make sense. For example 'His" and "Arg" make sense classically, and something is either "His" or "Arg". However, in the quantum mechanical notation $|\text{His} \rangle + |\text{Arg} \rangle$, it refers to something which is a superposition of "His" and "Arg", which is not possible classically. I think it goes without saying that the idea in the paper is quite speculative. However, for simpler things such as the chirality of sugars or ammonia, there is quite mainstream speculation that decoherence plays a role in explaining it (see section 2.2 of Zeh's article):

https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9905004
The Meaning of Decoherence
H. D. Zeh

 

[Ali Beladi]

If you read the equations' symbols as if they were labels for "classically" or "common sensically" existing things, the equations would somewhat make sense. For example 'His" and "Arg" make sense classically, and something is either "His" or "Arg". However, in the quantum mechanical notation $|\text{His} \rangle + |\text{Arg} \rangle$, it refers to something which is a superposition of "His" and "Arg", which is not possible classically. I think it goes without saying that the idea in the paper is quite speculative. However, for simpler things such as the chirality of sugars or ammonia, there is quite mainstream speculation that decoherence plays a role in explaining it (see section 2.2 of Zeh's article):

https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9905004
The Meaning of Decoherence
H. D. Zeh

Thanks A lot