Quantum simulator of an open quantum system using superconducting qubits: exciton transport in photosynthetic complexes

2011/06/30 by Sarah Mostame, Patrick Rebentrost, Alexander Eisfeld +4 · 4 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Computer science #Electrical engineering #Electron transfer #Exciton #Master equation #Open quantum system #Open system (computing) #Photosynthetic reaction centre #Physical chemistry #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum computer #Quantum mechanics #Qubit #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Statistical physics #Superconductivity #Topology (electrical circuits) #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/14/10/105013

published as New Journal of Physics 14, 105013 (2012) · 14 pages, 7 figures, minor modifications

arxiv created 2012/03/20 · openalex publication_date 2012/10/10 · arxiv updated 2015/05/28 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Open quantum system approaches are widely used in the description of physical, chemical and biological systems. A famous example is electronic excitation transfer in the initial stage of photosynthesis, where harvested energy is transferred with remarkably high efficiency to a reaction center. This transport is affected by the motion of a structured vibrational environment, which makes simulations on a classical computer very demanding. Here we propose an analog quantum simulator of complex open system dynamics with a precisely engineered quantum environment. Our setup is based on superconducting circuits, a well established technology. As an example, we demonstrate that it is feasible to simulate exciton transport in the Fenna–Matthews–Olson photosynthetic complex. Our approach allows for a controllable single-molecule simulation and the investigation of energy transfer pathways as well as non-Markovian noise-correlation effects.

Citations

• Charge and Energy Transfer Dynamics in Molecular Systems
• Coherent Quantum Dynamics of a Superconducting Flux Qubit
• Quantum mechanical computers
• Irreversibility and Generalized Noise
• Simulated Quantum Computation of Molecular Energies
• Single-Qubit Lasing and Cooling at the Rabi Frequency
• Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems
• An open-system quantum simulator with trapped ions
• External momentum, volume effects, and the nucleon magnetic moment
• Long-range coupling and scalable architecture for superconducting flux qubits
• Dynamics of the dissipative two-state system
• Interqubit coupling mediated by a high-excitation-energy quantum object
• Role of Quantum Coherence and Environmental Fluctuations in Chromophoric Energy Transport
• The Physical Implementation of Quantum Computation
• Simulating physics with computers
• Quantum simulator for the O(3) nonlinear sigma model
• Quantum Simulators

Cited by

• DAMPyF: a Python implementation of the DAMPF method for the simulation of open-system dynamics
• The Kitaev–Feynman clock for open quantum systems
• Method for simulating open-system dynamics using mid-circuit measurements on a quantum computer
• Quantum simulation of quantum channels in nuclear magnetic resonance

Related

• Simulating Energy Transfer in Molecular Systems with Digital Quantum Computers
• The role of the multiple excitation manifold in a driven quantum simulator of an antenna complex
• Simulating Electron Transfer on Noisy Quantum Computers: A Scalable Approach to Open Quantum Systems
• Quantum dynamics in light-harvesting complexes: Beyond the single-exciton limit
• Open quantum system simulation of time and frequency resolved spectroscopy