Abstract:

Photosynthetic systems have attained a high degree of efficiency in transporting energy.  This talk shows how this high efficiency arises from a sophisticated interplay between quantum coherence and decoherence.  Too little quantum coherence or too much leads to low efficiency, but at just the right level of quantum coherence, energy transport becomes highly efficient, a phenomenon called the 'quantum Goldilocks effect'.  I present a simple theory of how biological systems optimize quantum transport, and show how we can emulate photosynthesis to optimize quantum transport in man- and woman-made systems.