Quantum transport efficiency and Fourier's law

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum energy transfer in a chain of two-level systems, showing size-independent current and how decoherence restores classical heat conduction, with implications for biological systems.

Contribution

It provides an analytic analysis demonstrating the violation of Fourier's law in quantum chains and how decoherence recovers classical behavior.

Findings

Energy current is independent of system size in quantum chains.

Decoherence restores classical diffusive heat conduction.

Implications for biological light harvesting systems.

Abstract

We analyze the steady-state energy transfer in a chain of coupled two-level systems connecting two thermal reservoirs. Through an analytic treatment we find that the energy current is independent of the system size, hence violating Fourier's law of heat conduction. The classical diffusive behavior in Fourier's law of heat conduction can be recovered by introducing decoherence to the quantum systems constituting the chain. Implications of these results on energy transfer in biological light harvesting systems, and the role of quantum coherences and entanglement are discussed.