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arXiv · 1610.04720

Vibration-induced coherence enhancement of the performance of a biological quantum heat engine

Hong-Bin Chen·Pin-Yi Chiu·Yueh-Nan Chen
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Abstract

Photosynthesis has been a long-standing research interest due to its fundamental importance. Recently, studies on photosynthesis processes also have inspired attention from a thermodynamical aspect when considering photosynthetic apparatuses as biological quantum heat engines. Quantum coherence is shown to play a crucial role in enhancing the performance of these quantum heat engines. Based on the experimentally reported structure, we propose a quantum heat engine model with a non-Markovian vibrational mode. We show that one can obtain a performance enhancement easily for a wide range of parameters in the presence of the vibrational mode. Our results provide insights into the photosynthetic processes and a design principle mimicking natural organisms.

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Hong-Bin Chen, Pin-Yi Chiu, Yueh-Nan Chen. 2016-10-15. Vibration-induced coherence enhancement of the performance of a biological quantum heat engine. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.94.052101

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