The persistence of quantum coherence in dipole dimer states in an environment of dipoles: implications for photosynthetic systems?

Quantum states which retain their coherence for sufficiently long to potentially affect biological processes are currently topical, for example in photosynthesis. It is argued here that, when addressing these issues theoretically, the usual focus on decoherence times may be inappropriate if the syst...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of physics. A, Mathematical and theoretical Vol. 44; no. 24; pp. 245303 - 17
Main Author Bradford, R A W
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Bristol IOP Publishing 17.06.2011
IOP
Subjects
Biological
Coherence
Dimers
Dipoles
Exact sciences and technology
Joining
Mathematical models
Physics
Strength
Persistence
Models
Dipoles
Quantum coherence
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Summary:Quantum states which retain their coherence for sufficiently long to potentially affect biological processes are currently topical, for example in photosynthesis. It is argued here that, when addressing these issues theoretically, the usual focus on decoherence times may be inappropriate if the system retains non-zero residual coherence in the long term. It is suggested that this could be the generic behaviour for systems whose relevant internal coupling strength (e.g., the Forster coupling) is large compared with the strength of the interaction with the environment. This is illustrated for the case of a dipole dimer interacting with an environment of dipoles. Whilst not intended to be a model of any particular biological system, the illustrative parameters are intended to bear a crude resemblance to photosynthetic units at 300 K. The persistence of non-zero coherence is therefore potentially significant.
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ISSN:1751-8121
1751-8113
1751-8121
DOI:10.1088/1751-8113/44/24/245303