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

Autor: Reséndiz-Vázquez, Pablo, Román-Ancheyta, Ricardo, León-Montiel, Roberto de J.
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Quantum Reports. 2021; 3(2):262-271
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.3390/quantum3020016
Popis: 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.
Databáze: arXiv