Quantum coherence has been suggested to play a role in excitation energy transfer in open quantum systems, yet a quantitative approach to assessing its influence on the transfer process is still missing. Using Nakajima-Zwanzig projection operators, we derive a general memory kernel identity that enables us to characterize and quantify the impact of coherence in the eigenenergy basis on a generalized rate of energy transfer. Applying our approach to the electronic dynamics of a dimer coupled to a structured phonon bath, we demonstrate how quantum coherence acts to modulate energy transfer.
Comments
19 pages, 11 figures. v2: rewritten theory section and fixed math mistake in response to referee comments
Quantum coherence has been suggested to play a role in excitation energy transfer in open quantum systems, yet a quantitative approach to assessing its influence on the transfer process is still missing. Using Nakajima-Zwanzig projection operators, we derive a general memory kernel identity that enables us to characterize and quantify the impact of coherence in the eigenenergy basis on a generalized rate of energy transfer. Applying our approach to the electronic dynamics of a dimer coupled to a structured phonon bath, we demonstrate how quantum coherence acts to modulate energy transfer.
Excitation energy transfer in light-harvesting aggregates is highly efficient, yet whether quantum coherence plays an operational role in transport remains debated. A central challenge is that coherence is usually inferred from spectroscopic signatures, whereas transport performance is assessed through specific observables and depends on both the open system dynamics and the initial state preparation. Here we develop a resource theoretic approach that quantifies the maximum change that initial site-basis coherence can induce in a chosen readout under fixed reduced dynamics. The central quantity is the resource impact functional, which yields state independent, readout specific bounds on coherence-induced changes in signals and transport figures of merit. We apply the framework to two models. For a donor-acceptor dimer, we analyse coherence sensitivity across coupling and bath-timescale regimes and bound trapping efficiency and average transfer time in terms of the impact functional. For a multi-site chain with terminal trapping, we derive rigorous criteria that distinguish population placement from sensitivity to initial state site-basis coherence. These include upper bounds on the largest advantage over incoherent preparations, necessary delocalization requirements for achieving a prescribed improvement, and a simple pairwise sufficient condition that can be checked from local information. For quasi-local reduced dynamics, we further obtain a Lieb-Robinson-type bound that constrains when coherence prepared in a distant region can influence a localized readout at finite times. Together, these results provide operational diagnostics and rigorous bounds for benchmarking coherence effects and for identifying regimes in which they are necessarily negligible or potentially relevant in excitonic transport models.
Excitation energy transfer in light-harvesting aggregates is highly efficient, yet whether quantum coherence plays an operational role in transport remains debated. A central challenge is that coherence is usually inferred from spectroscopic signatures, whereas transport performance is assessed through specific observables and depends on both the open system dynamics and the initial state preparation. Here, we develop a resource theoretic approach that quantifies the maximum change that initial site-basis coherence can induce in a chosen readout under fixed reduced dynamics. The central quantity is the resource impact functional, which yields state independent, readout specific bounds on coherence-induced changes in signals and transport figures of merit. We apply the framework to two models. For a donor-acceptor dimer, we analyze coherence sensitivity across coupling and bath-timescale regimes and bound trapping efficiency and average transfer time in terms of the impact functional. For a multi-site chain with terminal trapping, we derive rigorous criteria that distinguish population placement from sensitivity to initial state site-basis coherence. These include upper bounds on the largest advantage over incoherent preparations, necessary delocalization requirements for achieving a prescribed improvement, and a simple pairwise sufficient condition that can be checked from local information. For quasi-local reduced dynamics, we further obtain a Lieb-Robinson-type bound that constrains when coherence prepared in a distant region can influence a localized readout at finite times. Together, these results provide operational diagnostics and rigorous bounds for benchmarking coherence effects and for identifying regimes in which they are necessarily negligible or potentially relevant in excitonic transport models.
Abstract The dynamics of single-excitation energy transfer in a molecular dimer interacting with a phonon bath is studied. Although there are exact numerical solutions for this system, we propose an approach that provides exact analytical results with few electronic degrees of freedom. This approach is based on considering the phonon subsystem in the coherent state representation. Applying this approach, the long-lived coherence time is evaluated in the weak and strong coupling regimes. Moreover, by calculating the quantum entanglement and global quantum discord, the time evolution of quantum correlations is examined. The effects of two parameters, electronic coupling strength and bath temperature, on the energy transfer and quantum correlations are studied. It is shown, in agreement with previous results, that the long-lived coherence time in the weak coupling regime is longer than in the strong coupling regime. Also, the increasing bath temperature gives rise to faster delocalization of energy transfer. Furthermore, it is illustrated that the bath temperature has a significant effect on the quantum entanglement with respect to the global quantum discord.
Recent progress in resource theory of quantum coherence has resulted in measures to quantify coherence in quantum systems. Especially, the l 1 -norm and relative entropy of coherence have been shown to be proper quantifiers of coherence and have been used to investigate coherence properties in different operational tasks. Since long-lasting quantum coherence has been experimentally confirmed in a number of photosynthetic complexes, it has been debated if and how coherence is connected to the known efficiency of population transfer in such systems. In this study, we investigate quantitatively the relationship between coherence, as quantified by l 1 -norm and relative entropy of coherence, and efficiency, as quantified by fidelity, for population transfer between end-sites in a network of two-level quantum systems. In particular, we use the coherence averaged over the duration of the population transfer in order to carry out a quantitative comparison between coherence and fidelity. Our results show that although coherence is a necessary requirement for population transfer, there is no unique relation between coherence and the efficiency of the transfer process.
Quantum coherence and other non-classical features are widely discussed in chemical dynamics, yet it remains difficult to quantify when such resources are operationally relevant for a given process and observable. While quantum resource theories provide a comprehensive framework for comparing free and resourceful settings, existing approaches typically rely on resource monotones or on performance bounds under free operations, and do not directly quantify the maximal influence a chosen resource can exert on a fixed chemical dynamics. Here, we introduce task specific, process level quantifiers that upper bound the largest change a quantum resource can induce in a target figure of merit. Central is a resource impact functional CM(Λ), defined by comparing a state with its paired resource-free counterpart under the same quantum channel Λ, which admits an operational interpretation in binary hypothesis testing. We derive variation and time bounds that constrain how rapidly a resource can modify a target signal, providing resource-aware analogues of quantum speed limits. Moreover, we show that open system dynamics can be decomposed into free and resourceful components such that only the resourceful component contributes to CM(Λ), thereby isolating the parts of a generator responsible for resource-induced changes in the observable. We illustrate the framework exemplary for energy transfer in a donor-acceptor dimer in two analytically solvable regimes. Our results provide a general toolbox for diagnosing and benchmarking quantum resource effects in molecular processes.
We introduce a probability-current analysis of excitation energy transfer between states of an open quantum system. Expressing the energy transfer through currents of excitation probability between the states in a site representation enables us to gain key insights into the energy transfer dynamics. In particular, the analysis yields direct identification of the pathways of energy transport in large networks of sites and quantifies their relative weights, as well as the respective contributions of unitary dynamics, coherence, dephasing, and relaxation and dissipation processes to the energy transfer. It thus provides much more information than studying only excitation probabilities of the states as a function of time. Our analysis is general and can be readily applied to a broad range of dynamical descriptions of open quantum system dynamics with coupling to non-Markovian or Markovian environments.