Related papers: Do photosynthetic complexes use quantum coherence …

Resonance energy transfer has become an indispensable experimental tool for single-molecule and single-cell biophysics. Its physical underpinnings, however, are subtle: It involves a discrete jump of excitation from one molecule to another,…

In this Thesis we study the quantum to classical transition process in the context of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. We shall analyze the effects that general environments, namely ohmic and non-ohmic, at zero and high…

Conventional wisdom dictates that to image the position of fluorescent atoms or molecules, one should stimulate as much emission and collect as many photons as possible. That is, in this classical case, it has always been assumed that the…

We investigate the quantum thermodynamics of two quantum systems, a two-level system and a four-level quantum photocell, each driven by photon pulses as a quantum heat engine. We set these systems to be in thermal contact only with a cold…

In this work we investigate the relation between quantum measurements and decoherence, in order to formally express the necessity of the latter for obtaining an informative output from the former. To this aim, referring to the Von Neumann…

Noise-assisted transport in quantum systems occurs when quantum time-evolution and decoherence conspire to produce a transport efficiency that is higher than what would be seen in either the purely quantum or purely classical cases. In…

Photosynthesis powers life on our planet. The basic photosynthetic architecture comprises antenna complexes to harvest solar energy and reaction centers to convert the energy into a stable charge separated state. In oxygenic photosynthesis,…

It is shown that quantum coherence is conserved in a principal system in the case that the system is coupled to a fast dissipating environment [arXiv:0709.0562]. The phenomenon is called the quantum wipe effect. Here, this effect is…

The question of whether quantum coherence is a resource beneficial or detrimental to the performance of quantum heat engines has been thoroughly studied but remains undecided. To isolate the contribution of coherence, we analyze the…

In this paper we consider dynamics of a molecular system subjected to external pumping by a light source. Within a completely quantum mechanical treatment, we derive a general formula, which enables to asses effects of different light…

An alternative approach to decoherence, named non-dynamical decoherence is developed and used to resolve the quantum measurement problem. According to decoherence, the observed system is open to a macroscopic apparatus(together with a…

The environment surrounding a quantum system can, in effect, monitor some of the systems observables. As a result, the eigenstates of these observables continuously decohere and can behave like classical states.

Photosynthesis is a biological process that involves the highly-efficient transport of energy captured from the sun to a reaction center, where conversion into useful biochemical energy takes place. Even though one can always use a quantum…

Quantum entanglement is known as a unique quantum feature that cannot be obtained by classical physics. Over the last several decades, however, such an understanding on quantum entanglement might have confined us in a limited world of weird…

In the classical regime, thermodynamic state transformations are governed by the free energy. This is also called as the second law of thermodynamics. Previous works showed that, access to a catalytic system allows us to restore the second…

We study the ultimate limits to the decoherence rate associated with dephasing processes. Fluctuating chaotic quantum systems are shown to exhibit extreme decoherence, with a rate that scales exponentially with the particle number, thus…

The study and control of coherence in quantum systems is one of the most exciting recent developments in physics. Quantum coherence plays a crucial role in emerging quantum technologies as well as fundamental experiments. A major obstacle…

In the conventional two-point measurement scheme of quantum thermodynamics, quantum coherence is destroyed by the first measurement. But as we know the coherence really plays an important role in the quantum thermodynamics process, and how…

Recently it was demonstrated that long-lived quantum coherence exists during excitation energy transport in photosynthesis. It is a valid question up to which length, time and mass scales quantum coherence may extend, how to one may detect…

Spontaneous emission and the inelastic scattering of photons are two natural processes usually associated with decoherence and the reduction in the capacity to process quantum information. Here we show that when suitably detected, these…