{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"3dbfa8ec09e7cd77e10093539f142a1a7db60536a30f6093488e3ce1b0e1815e","created":"2026-10-15T23:43:22Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":["ai:gpt-5.5"],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["9bf81c4beb0aa8d42b5d0fdc7c5fc732bf15caaf69084b2a121b03c759b25a39","ce59fb6cd812fc05906d0c60a71c75ea22bc686bcf38e7c3ef7010834d98ee7b"],"salt":"e232d28c11c33c472203a4eb767ca1827dc84a4561022414b9d847a985e4e479","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"mechanism","assisted_by":["ai:gpt-5.5"],"external_id":"bio.quantum-biology.rf-compass-disruption","kind":"phenomenon","literature_status":"contested","n":"2","parents":[],"plain":"Experiments report that weak radio noise, far weaker than Earth's magnetic field, makes migratory birds lose their compass sense. Radical-pair theory predicts such weak noise should only work if the electron spins stay correlated far longer than seems possible.","posed_since":"","precise":"Night-migratory songbirds reportedly lose magnetic orientation under broadband radio-frequency noise (reported from about $2\\,\\mathrm{kHz}$ up to about $85\\,\\mathrm{MHz}$, absent at $140\\text{-}150\\,\\mathrm{MHz}$) with magnetic amplitudes in the nanotesla range, about $10^{-5}\\text{ to }10^{-4}\\,\\mathrm{G}$. For a radical pair, a yield change of order 1 percent from a resonant field $B_{\\mathrm{rf}}$ requires $\\left(\\gamma_e B_{\\mathrm{rf}} T_2\\right)^2 \\sim 0.01$ with $\\gamma_e = 1.76 \\times 10^{7}\\,\\mathrm{s}^{-1}\\,\\mathrm{G}^{-1}$, giving $T_2$ of tens of microseconds or more at $B_{\\mathrm{rf}} \\sim 10^{-4}\\,\\mathrm{G}$ (heuristic estimate), far above computed relaxation times. An answer is a mechanism that reproduces the amplitude and frequency thresholds of the effect, within or outside the radical-pair picture, or a demonstration that the effect is not reproducible.","problem_ref":"9bf81c4beb0aa8d42b5d0fdc7c5fc732bf15caaf69084b2a121b03c759b25a39","references":"","settled_by":"Independent, blinded replications mapping the disorientation threshold versus RF frequency and amplitude, compared with a spin model that predicts that threshold curve.","status_note":"A 2023 PNAS study found no disruption above about 140 MHz, consistent with a predicted flavin radical-pair cutoff near 116 MHz; a 2026 J. R. Soc. Interface study found amplitude-modulated MHz fields disorient birds at lower amplitude than unmodulated ones and argued for a separate induction-based sensor.","title":"Why very weak radio-frequency noise disrupts the bird magnetic compass","topic_ref":null},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"213582ee94aac87eccd83af71560d7aa936f485156a588191db18ceca44bdbab","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"b520e155a353525c9fb9e3cda70db980158a3b301fb9b5ab5b0b55145a474290","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"7Oc0dSbz3Uud8SqM6DgH0OxPFK-eC_RDWshjrSqQZxPcx1Mm9AKE_Czc_9j15UJw0AVEOfI0sLGDc7XZr-4CAA"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"213582ee94aac87eccd83af71560d7aa936f485156a588191db18ceca44bdbab","leaf_index":2628}