No Arabic abstract
The role of quantum coherence and the environment in the dynamics of excitation energy transfer is not fully understood. In this work, we introduce the concept of dynamical contributions of various physical processes to the energy transfer efficiency. We develop two complementary approaches, based on a Greens function method and energy transfer susceptibilities, and quantify the importance of the Hamiltonian evolution, phonon-induced decoherence, and spatial relaxation pathways. We investigate the Fenna-Matthews-Olson protein complex, where we find a contribution of coherent dynamics of about 10% and of relaxation of 80%.
We discuss the role of quantum coherence in the energy fluctuations of open quantum systems. To this aim, we introduce an operational protocol, to which we refer to as the end-point-measurement scheme, allowing to define the statistics of energy changes as a function of energy measurements performed only after its evolution. At the price of an additional uncertainty on the value of the initial energies, this approach prevents the loss of initial quantum coherences and enables the estimation of their effects on energy fluctuations. We illustrate our findings using a three-level quantum system in interaction with thermal reservoirs.
We discuss the role of quantum coherence in the energy fluctuations of open quantum systems. To this aim, we introduce a protocol, to which we refer to as the end-point-measurement scheme, allowing to define the statistics of energy changes as a function of energy measurements performed only after the evolution of the initial state. At the price of an additional uncertainty on the initial energies, this approach prevents the loss of initial quantum coherences and enables the estimation of their effects on energy fluctuations. We demonstrate our findings by running an experiment on the IBM Quantum Experience superconducting qubit platform.
The total correlations in a bipartite quantum system are measured by the quantum mutual information $mathcal{I}$, which consists of quantum discord and classical correlation. However, recent results in quantum information shows that coherence, which is a part of total correlation, is more general and more fundamental than discord. The role of coherence in quantum resource theories is worthwhile to investigate. We first study the relation between quantum discord and coherence by reducing the difference between them. And then, we consider the dynamics of quantum discord, classical correlations and quantum coherence under incoherent quantum channels. We discover that coherence indicate the behavior of quantum discord (classical correlation) for times $t<bar t$, and indicate the decoherence of classical correlation (quantum discord) for times $t>bar t$. What is more, the coherence frozen and decay indicate the quantum discord and classical correlation frozen and decay respectively.
Recently it was demonstrated that long-lived quantum coherence exists during excitation energy transport in photosynthesis. It is a valid question up to which length, time and mass scales quantum coherence may extend, how to one may detect this coherence and what if any role it plays for the dynamics of the system. Here we suggest that the selectivity filter of ion channels may exhibit quantum coherence which might be relevant for the process of ion selectivity and conduction. We show that quantum resonances could provide an alternative approch to ultrafast 2D spectroscopy to probe these quantum coherences. We demonstrate that the emergence of resonances in the conduction of ion channels that are modulated periodicallly by time dependent external electric fields can serve as signitures of quantum coherence in such a system. Assessments of experimental feasibility and specific paths towards the experimental realization of such experiments are presented. We show that this may be probed by direct 2-D spectroscopy or through the emergence of resonances in the conduction of ion channels that are modulated periodically by time dependent external electric fields.
We investigate the role of quantum coherence in the efficiency of excitation transfer in a ring-hub arrangement of interacting two-level systems, mimicking a light-harvesting antenna connected to a reaction center as it is found in natural photosynthetic systems. By using a quantum jump approach, we demonstrate that in the presence of quantum coherent energy transfer and energetic disorder, the efficiency of excitation transfer from the antenna to the reaction center depends intimately on the quantum superposition properties of the initial state. In particular, we find that efficiency is sensitive to symmetric and asymmetric superposition of states in the basis of localized excitations, indicating that initial state properties can be used as a efficiency control parameter at low temperatures.