Non-Markovianity in photosynthetic reaction centers: A noise-induced quantum coherence perspective

TL;DR

This paper investigates how non-Markovian environmental effects influence quantum coherence and efficiency in photosynthetic reaction centers, challenging previous Markovian assumptions and offering new insights into biological energy transfer.

Contribution

It introduces a non-Markovian model with Lorentzian spectral densities to analyze photosynthetic complexes, extending beyond traditional Markovian approximations.

Findings

Non-Markovian effects can enhance quantum coherence in photosynthesis.

Lorentzian spectral densities significantly impact energy transfer dynamics.

Results suggest environmental memory effects are crucial for photosynthetic efficiency.

Abstract

The long-standing problem of nearly perfect photosynthetic yield in some types of bacteria and nearly all kinds of plants despite the interaction with a hot and noisy environment has witnessed quantum optical explanations in the last decade or so. Typically in these explanations, photosynthetic reaction centers are modeled as five-level quantum heat engines where the generation of Fano-type interference due to the coupling of discrete state transitions with a common Markovian reservoir is held responsible for the enhancement of the photosynthetic efficiency. In this work, we go beyond the Born-Markov approximation used in the earlier works and study the impact of non-Markovian environments with Lorentzian spectral densities on the dynamics of light-harvesting complexes.