22 ms·

This is actually interesting. If their theory is correct plants have essentially loss less and super fast way for photons to traverse a random network^1. 1: Th

This is actually interesting. If their theory is correct plants have essentially loss less and super fast way for photons to traverse a random network^1. 1: They claim it is random network, I am not sure if we can call specific protein truly random. There is also question of size, scale of this effect might be small enough that there will be no applicable technology that could utilize it yet.

VladRussian2 13y ago
in the original article they clear that it isn't a photon, it is exciton that does the traveling: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1311.4688v1.pdf http://arxiv.org/pdf/1311.4688v1.pdf "In these systems excitons initiated by the incoming photons should travel really fast throughout a chain of chromophores in order to reach the reaction center where they are converted to chemical energy." >loss less and super fast way for photons to traverse a random network^1. My understanding is it isn't exactly loss less. It is a trade-off. The "natural" QM way of simultaneous multi-path travel is the super fast way of finding the reaction center. The issue is that many of these multi-paths may interfere and as result some degree of "entrapment" happens significantly delaying the arrival at the reaction center (Anderson localization - on a lattice draw all possible ways from A to B, including loops, etc... and whenever paths pass through the same edge with different direction double the edge time on each path and given lattice complex enough the propagation would almost stall - very-very rough illustration). To minimize the delay, the nature seems to came up with workaround - [slightly] breaking the phases on different paths and it seems that coherence is still preserved so we still have multi-path simultaneity while the above mentioned Anderson localization is decreased because of phase mismatch. This phase breaking is result of interaction which causes some energy loss/dissipation.

VladRussian2 13y ago

in the original article they clear that it isn't a photon, it is exciton that does the traveling: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1311.4688v1.pdf http://arxiv.org/pdf/1311.4688v1.pdf "In these systems excitons initiated by the incoming photons should travel really fast throughout a chain of chromophores in order to reach the reaction center where they are converted to chemical energy." >loss less and super fast way for photons to traverse a random network^1. My understanding is it isn't exactly loss less. It is a trade-off. The "natural" QM way of simultaneous multi-path travel is the super fast way of finding the reaction center. The issue is that many of these multi-paths may interfere and as result some degree of "entrapment" happens significantly delaying the arrival at the reaction center (Anderson localization - on a lattice draw all possible ways from A to B, including loops, etc... and whenever paths pass through the same edge with different direction double the edge time on each path and given lattice complex enough the propagation would almost stall - very-very rough illustration). To minimize the delay, the nature seems to came up with workaround - [slightly] breaking the phases on different paths and it seems that coherence is still preserved so we still have multi-path simultaneity while the above mentioned Anderson localization is decreased because of phase mismatch. This phase breaking is result of interaction which causes some energy loss/dissipation.