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arXiv:1710.09408 · Physical Review A

Trapped-ion quantum simulation of excitation transport: Disordered, noisy, and long-range connected quantum networks

Nils Trautmann, Philipp Hauke

Published Feb 5, 2018• 39 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The transport of excitations governs fundamental properties of matter. Particularly rich physics emerges in the interplay between disorder and environmental noise, even in small systems such as photosynthetic biomolecules. Counterintuitively, noise can enhance coherent quantum transport, which has been proposed as a mechanism behind the high transport efficiencies observed in photosynthetic complexes. This effect has been called ``environment-assisted quantum transport''. Here, we propose a quantum simulation of the excitation transport in an open quantum network, taking advantage of the high controllability of current trapped-ion experiments. Our scheme allows for the controlled study of various different aspects of the excitation transfer, ranging from the influence of static disorder and interaction range, over the effect of Markovian and non-Markovian dephasing, to the impact of a continuous insertion of excitations. Our paper discusses experimental error sources and realistic parameters, showing that it can be implemented in state-of-the-art ion-chain experiments.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.97.023606

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The transport of excitations governs fundamental properties of matter. Particularly rich physics emerges in the interplay between disorder and environmental noise, even in small systems such as photosynthetic biomolecules. Counterintuitively, noise can enhance coherent quantum transport, which has been proposed as a mechanism behind the high transport efficiencies observed in photosynthetic complexes. This effect has been called ``environment-assisted quantum transport''. Here, we propose a quantum simulation of the excitation transport in an open quantum network, taking advantage of the high controllability of current trapped-ion experiments. Our scheme allows for the controlled study of various different aspects of the excitation transfer, ranging from the influence of static disorder and interaction range, over the effect of Markovian and non-Markovian dephasing, to the impact of a continuous insertion of excitations. Our paper discusses experimental error sources and realistic parameters, showing that it can be implemented in state-of-the-art ion-chain experiments.
The way in which energy is transported through an interacting system governs fundamental properties in nature such as thermal and electric conductivity or phase changes. Remarkably, environmental noise can enhance the transport, an effect known as environment-assisted quantum transport (ENAQT). In this Letter, we study ENAQT in a network of coupled spins subject to engineered static disorder and temporally varying dephasing noise. The interacting spin network is realized in a chain of trapped atomic ions, and energy transport is represented by the transfer of electronic excitation between ions. With increasing noise strength, we observe a crossover from coherent dynamics and Anderson localization to ENAQT and finally a suppression of transport due to the quantum Zeno effect. We find that in the regime where ENAQT is most effective, the transport is mainly diffusive, displaying coherences only at very short times. Further, we show that dephasing characterized by non-Markovian noise can maintain coherences longer than white noise dephasing, with a strong influence of the spectral structure on the transport efficiency. Our approach represents a controlled and scalable way to investigate quantum transport in many-body networks under static disorder and dynamic noise.
We study the environment-assisted enhancement of the excitation-transport efficiency across a network of interacting quantum particles or sites. Our study reveals a crucial influence of the network configuration - and especially its degree of connectivity - on the amount of environment-supported enhancement. In particular, we find a significant interplay of direct and indirect connections between excitation sending and receiving sites. On the other hand, the non-Markovianity induced by memory-bearing, finite sized environments does not seem to provide a critical resource for the enhanced excitation-transport mechanism.
Abstract Nontrivial quantum effects in biological systems are of high interest among physicists over the past decade. They allow for information and energy to be exchanged with near-unity efficiency despite hindered by the warm, wet, and noisy environment. Several models suggests that the efficient quantum energy transport is due to the interplay between dephasing dynamics and unitary evolution of the disordered biological systems i.e in photosynthetic complex. However, the proposed models have not yet included the driving force depicting the external perturbation used in the experiment such as laser in 2D spectroscopy involved in the detection of the exciton transfer or an artificial quantum transport experiments. Here, we resolve this issue by subjecting the dephasing assisted transport model by Plenio and Huelga [New J. Phys. 10, 11 (2012)] to a driving force. We analyze dynamical evolution of the driven system and show that further efficiency enhancement achieved by driving the transport site. We also discuss some experimental realizations of the quantum transport system.
Open quantum system approaches are widely used in the description of physical, chemical and biological systems. A famous example is electronic excitation transfer in the initial stage of photosynthesis, where harvested energy is transferred with remarkably high efficiency to a reaction center. This transport is affected by the motion of a structured vibrational environment, which makes simulations on a classical computer very demanding. Here we propose an analog quantum simulator of complex open system dynamics with a precisely engineered quantum environment. Our setup is based on superconducting circuits, a well established technology. As an example, we demonstrate that it is feasible to simulate exciton transport in the Fenna–Matthews–Olson photosynthetic complex. Our approach allows for a controllable single-molecule simulation and the investigation of energy transfer pathways as well as non-Markovian noise-correlation effects.
Understanding the transport mechanisms and properties of complex networks is fundamental for the comprehension of a vast class of phenomena, from state transfer on a spin network to light-harvesting in photosynthetic complexes. It has been theoretically and experimentally demonstrated that noise can enhance transport when the system parameters are properly tuned, an effect known as noise-assisted transport (NAT). In this work we investigate the role of initial entanglement in the transfer efficiency of two walkers in a noisy network. By using the formalism of quantum walks, we define a range of small dephasing noise where initial site-entanglement provides transport enhancement and outperforms the NAT effect. Furthermore, we show two specific scenarios where entanglement-assisted transport can open faster channels for slow walkers and avoid a broken link in a communication line. These findings may be of potential interest for quantum technologies.
Transport phenomena are fundamental in physics. They allow for information and energy to be exchanged between individual constituents of communication systems, networks or even biological entities. Environmental noise will generally hinder the efficiency of the transport process. However, and contrary to intuition, there are situations in classical systems where thermal fluctuations are actually instrumental in assisting transport phenomena. Here we show that, even at zero temperature, transport of excitations across dissipative quantum networks can be enhanced by local dephasing noise. We explain the underlying physical mechanisms behind this phenomenon and propose possible experimental demonstrations in quantum optics. Our results suggest that the presence of entanglement does not play an essential role for energy transport and may even hinder it. We argue that Nature may be routinely exploiting dephasing noise and show that the transport of excitations in simplified models of light harvesting molecules does benefit from such noise assisted processes. These results point toward the possibility for designing optimized structures for transport, for example in artificial nanostructures, assisted by noise.