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arXiv:1503.02412 · Scientific Reports

Using non-Markovian measures to evaluate quantum master equations for photosynthesis

Hong-Bin Chen, Neill Lambert, Yuan‐Chung Cheng, Yueh-Nan Chen, Franco Nori

Published Aug 4, 2015• 76 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

When dealing with system-reservoir interactions in an open quantum system, such as a photosynthetic light-harvesting complex, approximations are usually made to obtain the dynamics of the system. One question immediately arises: how good are these approximations, and in what ways can we evaluate them? Here, we propose to use entanglement and a measure of non-Markovianity as benchmarks for the deviation of approximate methods from exact results. We apply two frequently-used perturbative but non-Markovian approximations to a photosynthetic dimer model and compare their results with that of the numerically-exact hierarchy equation of motion (HEOM). This enables us to explore both entanglement and non-Markovianity measures as means to reveal how the approximations either overestimate or underestimate memory effects and quantum coherence. In addition, we show that both the approximate and exact results suggest that non-Markonivity can, counter-intuitively, increase with temperature, and with the coupling to the environment.

DOI
10.1038/srep12753

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When dealing with system-reservoir interactions in an open quantum system, such as a photosynthetic light-harvesting complex, approximations are usually made to obtain the dynamics of the system. One question immediately arises: how good are these approximations, and in what ways can we evaluate them? Here, we propose to use entanglement and a measure of non-Markovianity as benchmarks for the deviation of approximate methods from exact results. We apply two frequently-used perturbative but non-Markovian approximations to a photosynthetic dimer model and compare their results with that of the numerically-exact hierarchy equation of motion (HEOM). This enables us to explore both entanglement and non-Markovianity measures as means to reveal how the approximations either overestimate or underestimate memory effects and quantum coherence. In addition, we show that both the approximate and exact results suggest that non-Markonivity can, counter-intuitively, increase with temperature, and with the coupling to the environment.
In this work, an exact analytical approach for the dynamics of excitation energy transfer and quantum entanglement in a photosynthetic dimer system is presented. In this approach, the protein environment is investigated as non-Markovian stochastic noise around each pigment molecule. The exact analytical expressions for the population of two pigments and their quantum entanglement is obtained. It is shown that numerical results have a good matching with the experimental results at cryogenic and physiological temperatures.
This thesis investigates two thematic lines of research, both underpinned by non-Markovian system-reservoir interactions in quantum optics. The overarching focus is on modelling the open system dynamics in a non-perturbative fashion, broadly on - though not restricted to - instances when the environment is structured. A theory is developed by means of enlarging the open system over environmental degrees of freedom to include memory effects in its dynamics. This is achieved using an established technique that involves mapping a bosonic environment onto a 1D chain of harmonic oscillators. Within this setting, we apply a Heisenberg equation-of-motion approach to derive an exact set coupled differential equations for the open system and a single auxiliary oscillator of the chain. The combined equations are shown to have their interpretation rooted in a quantum Markov stochastic process. Including the auxiliary chain oscillator as part of the original system then enables us to obtain an exact master equation for the enlarged system, avoiding any need for the Born-Markov approximations. Our method is valid for a dissipative two-state system, with cases of multiple excitations and added driving discussed. Separately, we apply the framework of quantum Darwinism to an atom-cavity system, and, subsequently, to a more general multiple-environment model. In both cases, the time-dependent spread of correlations between the open system and fractions of the environment is analysed during the course of the decoherence process. The degree to which information is redundant across different fractions is checked to infer the emergence of classicality. In the second case, we go further and present a decomposition of information in terms of its quantum and classical correlations. A quantitative measure of redundancy is also studied with regard to its ability to witness non-Markovian behaviour. Besides fundamental interest, our results have application to quantum information processing and quantum technologies, keeping in mind the potential beneficial use of non-Markovian effects in reservoir engineering.
Quantum computing offers promising new avenues for tackling the long-standing challenge of simulating the quantum dynamics of complex chemical systems, particularly open quantum systems coupled to external baths. However, simulating such nonunitary dynamics on quantum computers is challenging since quantum circuits are specifically designed to carry out unitary transformations. Furthermore, chemical systems are often strongly coupled to the surrounding environment, rendering the dynamics non-Markovian and beyond the scope of Markovian quantum master equations like Lindblad or Redfield. In this work, we introduce a quantum algorithm designed to simulate non-Markovian dynamics of open quantum systems. Our approach enables the implementation of arbitrary quantum master equations on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers. We illustrate the method as applied in conjunction with the numerically exact hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) method. The effectiveness of the resulting quantum HEOM algorithm is demonstrated as applied to simulations of the non-Lindbladian electronic energy and charge transfer dynamics in models of the carotenoid-porphyrin-C 60 molecular triad dissolved in tetrahydrofuran and the Fenna–Matthews–Olson complex.
We microscopically model the decoherence dynamics of entangled coherent states under the influence of vacuum fluctuation. We derive an exact master equation with time-dependent coefficients reflecting the memory effect of the environment, by using the Feynman-Vernon influence functional theory in the coherent-state representation. Under the Markovian approximation, our master equation recovers the widely used Lindblad equation in quantum optics. We then investigate the non-Markovian entanglement dynamics of the quantum channel in terms of the entangled coherent states under noise. Compared with the results in Markovian limit, it shows that the non-Markovian effect enhances the disentanglement to the initially entangled coherent state. Our analysis also shows that the decoherence behaviors of the entangled coherent states depend sensitively on the symmetrical properties of the entangled coherent states as well as the interactions between the system and the environment.
We examine different nonlinear open quantum systems and calculate the non-Markovianity based on the distinguishability between two density matrices. We show that for a single spin (qubit) coupled to a bosonic field the non-Markovianity depends on the spectral density function and can take on any number N with 0 ≤ N ≤ 1, meaning the dynamics can be Markovian or highly non-Markovian. For the main result we consider a system of Ntot identical spins coupled to an environment in the mean-field way. Each spin is coupled to a local and the common reservoir. There are only indirect interactions between the spins through the common reservoir. In limit Ntot → 1 the subsystem consisting of a fixed set of n particles reduces to a factorized state in which each factor is a single spin evolving according to a nonlinear Hartree-Lindblad equation which is exactly solvable. For non-stationary initial spin states the non-Markovianity diverges. In this instance we can never approximate the dynamics of the quantum system by a Markovian master equation and this implies that in the mean field models, memory effects are significant.
In this paper we demonstrate that two commonly used phenomenological post-Markovian quantum master equations can be derived without using any perturbative approximation. A system coupled to an environment characterized by self-classical configurational fluctuations, the latter obeying a Markovian dynamics, defines the underlying physical model. Both Shabani-Lidar equation [A. Shabani and D. A. Lidar, Phys. Rev. A 71, 020101(R) (2005)] and its associated approximated integrodifferential kernel master equation are obtained by tracing out two different bipartite Markovian Lindblad dynamics where the environment fluctuations are taken into account by an ancilla system. Furthermore, conditions under which the non-Markovian system dynamics can be unraveled in terms of an ensemble of measurement trajectories are found. In addition, a non-Markovian quantum jump approach is formulated. Contrary to recent analysis [L. Mazzola, E. M. Laine, H. P. Breuer, S. Maniscalco, and J. Piilo, Phys. Rev. A 81, 062120 (2010)], we also demonstrate that these master equations, even with exponential memory functions, may lead to non-Markovian effects such as an environment-to-system backflow of information if the Hamiltonian system does not commutate with the dissipative dynamics.