Olaya-Castro, Alexandra

Date: Thursday June 26, 2014
Time: 14:00
Place: ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg, HPF G 6
Host: Jonathan Home

Non-classical phenomena in primary events of photosynthesis

Alexandra Olaya-Castro
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, United Kingdom

It is well known that primary steps in photosynthesis rely on quantum mechanical phenomena. For instance, excitons or the collective electronic excitations of light-gathering macromolecules are a clear manifestation of collective quantum behaviour of the chromophores that form these complexes, and they are essential for optimal absorption of sunlight. However, when it refers to excitation energy transfer and conversion in the picosecond time scale, it is not entirely clear which dynamical features can only be predicted within a quantum mechanical framework and how they correlate to the effective energy management by light-harvesting biomolecules. In this talk, I will discuss our recent research [1] which provides theoretical evidence both (i) that non-trivial quantum phenomena are manifested during primary steps in energy transfer in photosynthetic systems at room temperature, and (ii) that such non-classicality enhances effective energy distribution. Our work suggests that a careful inspection of the dynamics and fluctuations of quantum-scale molecular motions assisting transport, photo-transduction and sensing in biomolecular processes could benchmark a common principle for non-trivial quantum effects in biology.

[1] E. J. O'Reilly and A. Olaya-Castro, Non-classicality of the molecular vibrations assisting excitation energy transfer at room temperature; Nature Comm. 5, 3012 (2014)