ArticleThe journal of physical chemistry letters2022
Explaining the Efficiency of Photosynthesis: Quantum Uncertainty or Classical Vibrations?
Article in The journal of physical chemistry letters, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Minimization of Disorder as a Key Design Principle for Natural Sizes of Light Harvesting 2 Complexes.The journal of physical chemistry letters · 2026Article
- Quantum biology: From mechanisms to medicine.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Review
- Nuclear quantum effects slow down the energy transfer in biological light-harvesting complexes.Science advances · 2025Article
- Investigation of quantum trajectories in photosynthetic light harvesting through a quantum stochastic approach.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exciton dynamics from the mapping approach to surface hopping: comparison with Förster and Redfield theories.Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP · 2024Article
- How Quantum is the Resonance Behavior in Vibrational Polariton Chemistry?The journal of physical chemistry letters · 2023Article
- Molecular Dynamic Studies of Dye-Dye and Dye-DNA Interactions Governing Excitonic Coupling in Squaraine Aggregates Templated by DNA Holliday Junctions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Controlling photosynthetic energy conversion by small conformational changes.Physiologia plantarum · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Photosynthetic organisms are known to use a mechanism of vibrationally assisted exciton energy transfer to efficiently harvest energy from light. The importance of quantum effects in this mechanism is a long-standing topic of debate, which has traditionally focused on the role of excitonic coherences. Here, we address another recent claim: that the efficient energy transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex relies on nuclear quantum uncertainty and would not function if the vibrations were classical. We present a counter-example to this claim, showing by trajectory-based simulations that a description in terms of quantum electrons and classical nuclei is indeed sufficient to describe the funneling of energy to the reaction center. We analyze and compare these findings to previous classical-nuclear approximations that predicted the absence of an energy funnel and conclude that the key difference and the reason for the discrepancy is the ability of the trajectories to properly account for Newton's third law.
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