Comparing Two Definitions of Work for a Biological Quantum Heat Engine |
| |
| Authors: | XU You-Yang LIU Juan ZHAO Shun-Cai |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1.Faculty of Science, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China;2.Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China |
| |
| Abstract: | Systems of photosynthetic reaction centres have been modelled as heat engines, while it has also been reported that the efficiency and power of such heat engines can be enhanced by quantum interference|a trait that has attracted much interest. We compare two definitions of the work of such a photosynthetic heat engine, i.e. definition A used by Weimer et al. and B by Dorfman et al. We also introduce a coherent interaction between donor and acceptor (CIDA) to demonstrate a reversible energy transport. We show that these two definitions of work can impart contradictory results, that is, CIDA enhances the power and efficiency of the photosynthetic heat engine with definition B but not with A. Additionally, we find that both reversible and irreversible excitation-energy transport can be described with definition A, but definition B can only model irreversible transport. As a result, we conclude that definition A is more suitable for photosynthetic systems than definition B. |
| |
| Keywords: | quantum work heat engine photosynthesis |
|
| 点击此处可从《理论物理通讯》浏览原始摘要信息 |
|
点击此处可从《理论物理通讯》下载全文 |
|
