2009/10/31 by Stephan Hoyer, Mohan Sarovar, K. Birgitta Whaley · 170 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Chemistry #Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) #Computer science #Parallel computing #Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms #Physics #Quantum #Quantum algorithm #Quantum decoherence #Quantum dynamics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum walk #Robustness (evolution) #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Speedup #Statistical physics #physics.bio-ph #physics.chem-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/12/6/065041
published in New Journal of Physics 12(6), 065041 (IOP Publishing) · 9 pages, 6 figures. To appear in New Journal Physics, special issue on "Quantum Effects and Noise in Biomolecules." Updated to accepted version
arxiv created 2010/05/07 · openalex publication_date 2010/06/30 · arxiv updated 2010/07/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
It has been suggested that excitation transport in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes features speedups analogous to those found in quantum algorithms. Here we compare the dynamics in these light-harvesting systems to the dynamics of quantum walks, in order to elucidate the limits of such quantum speedups. For the Fenna–Matthews–Olson complex of green sulfur bacteria, we show that while there is indeed speedup at short times, this is short lived (70 fs) despite longer-lived (ps) quantum coherence. Remarkably, this timescale is independent of the details of the decoherence model. More generally, we show that the distinguishing features of light-harvesting complexes not only limit the extent of quantum speedup but also reduce the rates of diffusive transport. These results suggest that quantum coherent effects in biological systems are optimized for efficiency or robustness rather than the more elusive goal of quantum speedup.