Quantum simulator of an open quantum system using superconducting qubits: exciton transport in photosynthetic complexes

Understand

Open quantum system approaches are widely used in the description of physical, chemical and biological systems.

• A famous example is electronic excitation transfer in the initial stage of photosynthesis, where harvested energy is transferred with remarkably high efficiency to a reaction center.
• This transport is affected by the motion of a structured vibrational environment, which makes simulations on a classical computer very demanding.
• Here we propose an analog quantum simulator of complex open system dynamics with a precisely engineered quantum environment.