Noise-Assisted Response Shelves and Angular Drift in Radical Pair Magnetoreception

Noise-Assisted Response Shelves and Angular Drift in Radical Pair Magnetoreception | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Noise-Assisted Response Shelves and Angular Drift in Radical Pair Magnetoreception andrei ursachi This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798749/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We report that magnetic-field sensitivity in radical pair magnetoreception self-organizes into discrete, robust response shelves rather than scaling monotonically with microscopic parameters. Across extensive numerical scans of recombination asymmetry, hyperfine coupling, exchange interaction, and environmental dephasing, we identify a single shelf—within the explored class of RPM-like open quantum systems—centered at kS/kT ≈ 8–10 (u* ≈ 0.9 in log10 units) that persists across four decades of parameter variation. When centered and normalized, all response curves collapse onto a common functional form with pairwise correlations ≥0.99, demonstrating ratio-controlled timescale locking. The shelf peak position is invariant under hyperfine rescaling, while its amplitude scales as ΔYmax ∝ A^1.40 (R² = 0.989), indicating nonlinear interplay between coherent spin mixing and dissipative recombination. Hyperfine ablation (A → 0) confirms the shelf is proton-driven. At high magnetic fields (B ≳ 1 mT), we observe a hyperfine-controlled angular drift revealing a Zeeman–hyperfine interference transition. This work does not propose new quantum mechanisms, but identifies a general organizational principle governing how known quantum dynamics are converted into robust biological function within the explored model class. Because the present analysis employs a minimal single-nucleus radical pair, generalization to multi-nuclear cryptochrome geometries remains to be established. These findings establish response shelves as a general organizing principle for noisy quantum sensors in this model class and provide testable predictions for cryptochrome-based magnetoreception. Physical sciences/Physics/Biological physics Biological sciences/Biophysics/Computational biophysics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8798749","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":589102387,"identity":"d4a2a1c0-21db-457a-b81d-c9a7f828e61d","order_by":0,"name":"andrei ursachi","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA8klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBADOSA2ACMgYGNIwK+asQGo1Jh0LYkNMPVgLfgAf3vv8Qc/av6k989u3vbhQ8HhfPn2w88ePGCwARmCFUicOZfY2HPMIHfGnWPFM2cYHLbccCbN3CCBIQ2nFgOJHMMG3gaD3IYbOcbMPAaHDQwYctgkEhgO49XS+LfBIF0epOUPUIt8/xuQlv94tTQDbUkwAGlhAGphuAG25QAev5wxnC1zzNhw4420YsYeg3QDgxvPzCQSDJKNcWnhb+8x+PimRk5e7kbyZoYff6yBDkt+Jvmjwk4WlxZcwICwklEwCkbBKBgFuAEA7plXE1d03eMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6114-5011","institution":"noce","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"andrei","middleName":"","lastName":"ursachi","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-05 15:20:20","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798749/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798749/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":102963121,"identity":"42d5bdf6-f343-4e90-ab9c-e41d3174fcf6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-19 04:13:40","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":657457,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"NoiseAssistedNatCommFINALREVISED1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8798749/v1_covered_afe1650c-c6dc-4fa3-ae33-ccebfce0997a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Noise-Assisted Response Shelves and Angular Drift in Radical Pair Magnetoreception","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798749/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798749/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"We report that magnetic-field sensitivity in radical pair magnetoreception self-organizes into discrete, robust response shelves rather than scaling monotonically with microscopic parameters. Across extensive numerical scans of recombination asymmetry, hyperfine coupling, exchange interaction, and environmental dephasing, we identify a single shelf—within the explored class of RPM-like open quantum systems—centered at kS/kT ≈ 8–10 (u* ≈ 0.9 in log10 units) that persists across four decades of parameter variation. When centered and normalized, all response curves collapse onto a common functional form with pairwise correlations ≥0.99, demonstrating ratio-controlled timescale locking. The shelf peak position is invariant under hyperfine rescaling, while its amplitude scales as ΔYmax ∝ A^1.40 (R² = 0.989), indicating nonlinear interplay between coherent spin mixing and dissipative recombination. Hyperfine ablation (A → 0) confirms the shelf is proton-driven. At high magnetic fields (B ≳ 1 mT), we observe a hyperfine-controlled angular drift revealing a Zeeman–hyperfine interference transition. This work does not propose new quantum mechanisms, but identifies a general organizational principle governing how known quantum dynamics are converted into robust biological function within the explored model class. Because the present analysis employs a minimal single-nucleus radical pair, generalization to multi-nuclear cryptochrome geometries remains to be established. These findings establish response shelves as a general organizing principle for noisy quantum sensors in this model class and provide testable predictions for cryptochrome-based magnetoreception.","manuscriptTitle":"Noise-Assisted Response Shelves and Angular Drift in Radical Pair Magnetoreception","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-17 11:44:26","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8798749/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"89f5719f-3d73-485f-8b5e-03e4cdde308f","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 17th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":62681147,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics/Biological physics"},{"id":62681148,"name":"Biological sciences/Biophysics/Computational biophysics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-17T11:44:26+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-17 11:44:26","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8798749","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8798749","identity":"rs-8798749","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}