Quantum Process Capabilities of Excitation Transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson Complex

Abstract

The Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex is an eight-site structure used by certain types of bacteria to transfer excitations from a light-harvesting antenna to a reaction center Here we characterize several prescribed quantum-mechanical features of the excitation transfer in the FMO complex in a quantitatively precise manner Two different measures are introduced to quantify the capabilities of entanglement generation coherence creation and preservation and superposition creation of quantum states for the dynamical process of energy transfer at room temperature Since these capability measures do not depend on any specifics of the states being processed our method provides a comprehensive way to investigate the relationship between different quantum process capabilities and biological function including the change of mechanical characteristics of the excitation transfer in the FMO complex which evolves as time goes on and the robustness of excitation energy transfer under mutations local defects and other abnormal situations

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Supervisor	Che-Ming Li (Supervisor)