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arXiv:2104.07717 · Quantum Reports

Noise-Assisted Discord-Like Correlations in Light-Harvesting Photosynthetic Complexes

Pablo Reséndiz-Vázquez, R. Román-Ancheyta, Roberto de J. León‐Montiel

Published Apr 15, 2021• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Transport phenomena in photosynthetic systems have attracted a great deal of attention due to their potential role in devising novel photovoltaic materials. In particular, energy transport in light-harvesting complexes is considered quite efficient due to the balance between coherent quantum evolution and decoherence, a phenomenon coined Environment-Assisted Quantum Transport (ENAQT). Although this effect has been extensively studied, its behavior is typically described in terms of the decoherence’s strength, namely weak, moderate or strong. Here, we study the ENAQT in terms of quantum correlations that go beyond entanglement. Using a subsystem of the Fenna–Matthews–Olson complex, we find that discord-like correlations maximize when the subsystem’s transport efficiency increases, while the entanglement between sites vanishes. Our results suggest that quantum discord is a manifestation of the ENAQT and highlight the importance of beyond-entanglement correlations in photosynthetic energy transport processes.

DOI
10.3390/quantum3020016

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Transport phenomena in photosynthetic systems have attracted a great deal of attention due to their potential role in devising novel photovoltaic materials. In particular, energy transport in light-harvesting complexes is considered quite efficient due to the balance between coherent quantum evolution and decoherence, a phenomenon coined Environment-Assisted Quantum Transport (ENAQT). Although this effect has been extensively studied, its behavior is typically described in terms of the decoherence’s strength, namely weak, moderate or strong. Here, we study the ENAQT in terms of quantum correlations that go beyond entanglement. Using a subsystem of the Fenna–Matthews–Olson complex, we find that discord-like correlations maximize when the subsystem’s transport efficiency increases, while the entanglement between sites vanishes. Our results suggest that quantum discord is a manifestation of the ENAQT and highlight the importance of beyond-entanglement correlations in photosynthetic energy transport processes.
In this work, energy transfer in the photosynthetic process was studied from a quantum perspective, using the Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) complex as a model. The density operator formalism and the Lindblad master equation were employed to describe the non-unitary dynamics of an open system subject to injection, extraction, and decoherence processes. A two-level system and a three-site FMO complex were analyzed, allowing the study of phenomena such as Rabi oscillations, environment-induced coherence loss, and the emergence of Environment-Assisted Quantum Transport (ENAQT). Through numerical simulations, exciton and heat currents, von Neumann entropy, global and intersite entanglement, and energy transfer efficiency were calculated. The results show that, far from being an obstacle, the interaction with the environment can enhance photosynthetic efficiency under intermediate noise regimes, thus validating the ENAQT hypothesis. This study confirms that photosynthetic systems exploit a delicate balance between coherence and decoherence to optimize energy transport.
Abstract Transport phenomena are ubiquitous throughout the science, engineering, and technology disciplines as it concerns energy, mass, charge, and information exchange between systems. In particular, energy transport in the nanoscale regime has attracted significant attention within the physical science community due to its potential to explain complex phenomena like the electronic energy transfer in molecular crystals or the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO)/light harvesting complexes in photosynthetic bacteria with long time coherences. Energy transport in these systems is highly affected by environmental noise but surprisingly not always in a detrimental way. It was recently found that situations exist where noise actually enhances the transport phenomena. Such noise can take many forms, but can be characterised in three basic behaviors: quantum, correlation in time, or space. All have been shown potential to offer an energy transport enhancement. The focus of this work is on quantum transport caused by stochastic environment with spatio-temporal correlation. We consider a multi-site nearest neighbor interaction model with pure dephasing environmental noise with spatio-temporal correlation and show how an accelerated rate for the energy transfer results especially under negative spatial correlation (anti-correlation). Spatial anti-correlation provides another control parameter to help one establish the most efficient transfer of energy and may provide new insights into the working of exciton transport in photosynthetic complexes. Further the usage of spatio-temporal correlated noise may be a beneficial resource for efficient transport in large scale quantum networks.
Transport phenomena are ubiquitous throughout the science, engineering and technology disciplines as it concerns energy, mass, charge and information exchange between systems.In particular, energy transport in the nanoscale regime has attracted significant attention within the physical science community due to its potential to explain complex phenomena like the electronic energy transfer in molecular crystals or the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) / light harvesting complexes in photosynthetic bacteria with long time coherences.Energy transport in these systems is highly affected by environmental noise but surprisingly not always in a detrimental way.It was recently found that situations exist where noise actually enhances the transport phenomena.Such noise can take many forms, but can be characterised in three basic behaviours: quantum, correlation in time, or space.All have been shown potential to offer an energy transport enhancement.The focus of this work is on quantum transport caused by stochastic environment with spatio-temporal correlation.We consider a multi-site nearest neighbour interaction model with pure dephasing environmental noise with spatio-temporal correlation and show how an accelerated rate for the energy transfer results especially under negative spatial correlation (anti-correlation).Spatial anti-correlation provides another control parameter to help one establish the most efficient transfer of energy and may provide new insights into the working of exciton transport in photosynthetic complexes.Further the usage of spatio-temporal correlated noise may be a beneficial resource for efficient transport in large scale quantum networks.
Abstract The Fenna-Matthews-Olson light-harvesting complexes have become a center of attention due to their high excitation energy transfer efficiency, which may surpass 98%. Experimental results reveal the presence of quantum entanglement in the protein structure, which seems to be associated to such a remarkably high efficiency. Notably, Redfield and Lindblad master equations have been already used to model the chromophore excitation in the protein complex as well as its interactions with the environment. The entanglement arising during the process has been quantified through several measures. This work provides a short review of methods used to model the above described system. It is also discussed the introduction of two nonconventional measures addresed to quantify the emergent entanglement.
The dynamics of energy transfer in Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) light-harvesting complex interacting with a phonon bath is investigated. In this contribution, by considering the phonon bath as a source of stochastic noise, a new approach is proposed. Also, by calculating the global quantum entanglement and global quantum discord, the time evolution of the quantum correlation during the process is evaluated. The effects of temperature and initial excited state on the energy transfer and the quantum correlation are studied. It is shown, in agreement with the previous results, that the increasing of the temperature gives rise to the faster delocalisation of energy transfer and global quantum entanglement in the FMO complex. The proposed model predicts that the global discord is resistance versus the raising temperature. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the quantum entanglement with respect to the global quantum discord has a significant role in the process of energy transfer in the FMO complex.
Recent evidence of electronic coherence during energy transfer in photosynthetic antenna complexes has reinvigorated the discussion about whether coherence and/or entanglement have any practical functionality for these molecular systems. Here we investigate quantitative relationships between the quantum yield of a light-harvesting complex and the distribution of entanglement among its components. Our study focuses on the entanglement yield or average entanglement surviving a time scale comparable to the average excitation trapping time. We consider the Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) protein of green sulfur bacteria as a prototype system and show that there is an inverse relationship between the quantum efficiency and the average entanglement between distant donor sites. Our results suggest that long-lasting electronic coherence among distant donors might help in the modulation of the light-harvesting function.