Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Faraday Discuss. 2019 Jul 11;216(0):38-56. doi: 10.1039/c9fd00006b.
Synchronisation is a collective phenomenon widely investigated in classical oscillators and, more recently, in quantum systems. However it remains unclear what features distinguish synchronous behaviour in these two scenarios. Recent works have shown that investigating synchronisation dynamics in open quantum systems can give insight into this issue. Here we study transient synchronisation in a bio-inspired vibronic dimer, where electronic excitation dynamics is mediated by coherent interactions with intramolecular vibrational modes. We show that the synchronisation dynamics of local mode displacements exhibit a rich behaviour which arises directly from the distinct time-evolutions of different vibronic quantum coherences. Furthermore, our study shows that coherent energy transport in this bio-inspired system is concomitant with the emergence of positive synchronisation between mode displacements. Our work provides further understanding of the relations between quantum coherence and synchronisation in open quantum systems and suggests an interesting role for coherence in biomolecules, that of promoting synchronisation of vibrational motions driven out of thermal equilibrium.
同步是一个广泛研究的经典振荡器的集体现象，最近也在量子系统中进行了研究。然而，目前尚不清楚这两种情况下的同步行为有什么区别。最近的研究表明，研究开放量子系统中的同步动力学可以深入了解这个问题。在这里，我们研究了生物启发的振子偶中的瞬态同步，其中电子激发动力学通过与分子内振动模式的相干相互作用来介导。我们表明，局部模式位移的同步动力学表现出丰富的行为，这些行为直接源于不同振子量子相干的不同时间演化。此外，我们的研究表明，在这个生物启发的系统中，相干能量传输伴随着模式位移之间出现正同步。我们的工作进一步理解了开放量子系统中量子相干和同步之间的关系，并表明相干在生物分子中具有促进振动运动同步的有趣作用，这种同步是由热平衡之外的驱动引起的。
