Quantum mechanics is the study of atoms and molecules. The first quantum revolution came in the first quarter of the last century when quantum mechanics was developed as a theory. We are currently undergoing the second quantum revolution in which some quantum effects are utilized in technological device making. One of the leading devices on the list is quantum computers. Quantum computers are going to make use of special quantum mechanical effects (for example, quantum entanglement between particles and quantum superposition which allows a particle to be at two places at the same time). Typically these special effects (which have never been used before in technological devices) require quantum systems to be cooled down to extremely low temperatures (-200 F or so). However, quite remarkably, the unexpected high efficiency of plants to produce useful work in photosynthesis evidenced the presence of coherent quantum interactions between the chromophores in the photo-reaction center even at room temperatures. In this talk, we resolve this puzzle of how nature can sustain quantum effects at such high temperatures and is able to attain almost 100% photosynthetic yield efficiency.
Author: Antonio Vazquez Lim
Faculty Advisor: Imran Mirza, Department of Physics
Graduate Student Advisor: Zibo Wang, Physics
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