Identifying the quantum correlations in light-harvesting complexes

Kamil Brádler, Mark M. Wilde, Sai Vinjanampathy, and Dmitry B. Uskov
Phys. Rev. A 82, 062310 – Published 13 December 2010

Abstract

One of the major efforts in the quantum biological program is to subject biological systems to standard tests or measures of quantumness. These tests and measures should elucidate whether nontrivial quantum effects may be present in biological systems. Two such measures of quantum correlations are the quantum discord and the relative entropy of entanglement. Here, we show that the relative entropy of entanglement admits a simple analytic form when dynamics and accessible degrees of freedom are restricted to a zero- and single-excitation subspace. We also simulate and calculate the amount of quantum discord that is present in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson protein complex during the transfer of an excitation from a chlorosome antenna to a reaction center. We find that the single-excitation quantum discord and single-excitation relative entropy of entanglement are equal for all of our numerical simulations, but a proof of their general equality for this setting evades us for now. Also, some of our simulations demonstrate that the relative entropy of entanglement without the single-excitation restriction is much lower than the quantum discord. The first picosecond of dynamics is the relevant time scale for the transfer of the excitation, according to some sources in the literature. Our simulation results indicate that quantum correlations contribute a significant fraction of the total correlation during this first picosecond in many cases, at both cryogenic and physiological temperatures.

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  • Received 10 September 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.062310

© 2010 The American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Kamil Brádler and Mark M. Wilde

  • School of Computer Science, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2A7

Sai Vinjanampathy

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA

Dmitry B. Uskov

  • Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, USA; and Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brescia University, Owensboro, Kentucky 42301, USA

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Vol. 82, Iss. 6 — December 2010

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