Quantum biology revisited
Name
eaaz4888.full.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.25 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8ff0ae6a7d5245fcfa25687a63ccfb8e
Author(s)
Cao, Jianshu
Cogdell, Richard J.
Coker, David F.
Duan, Hong-Guang
Hauer, Jürgen
Kleinekathöfer, Ulrich
Jansen, Thomas L. C.
Mančal, Tomáš
Miller, R. J. Dwayne
Ogilvie, Jennifer P.
Date Issued
April 2020
Journal
Science Advances
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Citation
Cao, Jianshu et al. "Quantum biology revisited." Science Advances 6, 14 (April 2020): eaaz4888 © 2020 The Authors
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Photosynthesis is a highly optimized process from which valuable lessons can be learned about the operating principles in nature. Its primary steps involve energy transport operating near theoretical quantum limits in efficiency. Recently, extensive research was motivated by the hypothesis that nature used quantum coherences to direct energy transfer. This body of work, a cornerstone for the field of quantum biology, rests on the interpretation of small-amplitude oscillations in two-dimensional electronic spectra of photosynthetic complexes. This Review discusses recent work reexamining these claims and demonstrates that interexciton coherences are too short lived to have any functional significance in photosynthetic energy transfer. Instead, the observed long-lived coherences originate from impulsively excited vibrations, generally observed in femtosecond spectroscopy. These efforts, collectively, lead to a more detailed understanding of the quantum aspects of dissipation. Nature, rather than trying to avoid dissipation, exploits it via engineering of exciton-bath interaction to create efficient energy flow.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz4888
