Quantum state tomography of photosynthetic systems (joint seminar with the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics) - Agata Branczyk

Recent interest in the role of quantum mechanics in the primary events of photosynthetic energy transfer has highlighted the need for better quantum-state characterization of such systems. 2D electronic spectroscopy provides a wealth of valuable insight into the system---in particular its dynamics---however, it does not yield enough information to completely characterize the state. We present a proposal for quantum state tomography of photosynthetic systems using self-calibrating tomography, which allows the reconstruction of the density matrix of the state despite incomplete knowledge of the light-matter interaction---in this case, the unknown transition dipole moments of the chromophores. In this talk, I will provide a brief review of the emerging field of quantum effects in biology; an introduction to 2D electronic spectroscopy; and a description of our proposal for performing quantum state tomography on photosynthetic systems.