Predicting entanglement and coherent times in FMO complex using the HEOM method

TL;DR

This paper uses the HEOM method to model the FMO complex, predicting coherence and entanglement timescales, highlighting quantum effects in photosynthetic energy transfer.

Contribution

It applies the non-Markovian HEOM approach to model FMO dynamics, providing new insights into quantum coherence and entanglement in photosynthesis.

Findings

Predicted coherence times in FMO complex.

Analyzed entanglement dynamics during excitation.

Demonstrated non-Markovian effects on energy transfer.

Abstract

Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) bacteriochlorophylls (BChls) are molecules responsible of the high efficiency energy transfer in the photosynthetic process of green sulfur bacteria, controversially associated to quantum phenomena of long lived coherence. This phenomenon is modelled using Quantum Open Systems (QOS) without included memory effects of the surrounding approximated as a phonon bath on thermal equilibrium. This work applies the Hierarchical Equations of Motion method (HEOM), a non-Markovian approach, in the modelling of the system evolution of the FMO complex to perform predictions about the coherence time scales together with global and semi-local entanglement during the quantum excitation.