title: Quantitative correction of the rate constant in the improved variational master equation for excitation energy transfer.
abstract: Understanding the excitation energy transfer (EET) mechanism is a ubiquitous field of study in photosynthetic antennas. Recently, we qualitatively improved the theory of the variational master equation by introducing the second Bogoliubov inequality to determine the proper perturbative term. However, there were quantitative differences in the EET rate compared with the results from exact numerical calculations. In this study, we attempt to correct the differences in the intermediate coupling region. As a result, we found two methods to reproduce more exact results than those previously reported.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan.
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.affiliation: Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuta
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujihashi
mesh_terms: D004735:Energy Transfer; D008954:Models, Biological; D010788:Photosynthesis