Quantum superpositions in photosynthetic light harvesting: Derealization and entanglement

Abstract

We explore quantum entanglement among the chlorophyll molecules in light-harvesting complex II, which is the most abundant photosynthetic antenna complex in plants containing over 50% of the world's chlorophyll molecules. Our results demonstrate that there exists robust quantum entanglement under physiological conditions for the case of a single elementary excitation. However, this nonvanishing entanglement is not unexpected because entanglement in the single-excitation manifold is conceptually the same as quantum delocalized states, which are the spectroscopically detectable energy eigenstates of the system. We discuss the impact of the surrounding environments and correlated fluctuations in electronic energies of different pigments upon quantum derealization and quantum entanglement. It is demonstrated that investigations with tools quantifying the entanglement can provide us with more detailed information on the nature of quantum derealization, in particular the so-called dynamic localization, which is difficult for a traditional treatment to capture. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.