title: Role of interference in the photosynthetic heat engine.
abstract: The observation of quantum coherence in pigment-protein complexes has attracted considerable interest. One such endeavor entails applying a quantum heat engine to model the photosynthetic reaction center, but the definition of work used is inconsistent with that defined in quantum thermodynamics. Using the definition of work proposed in Weimer et al. [Europhys. Lett. 83, 30008 (2008)EULEEJ0295-507510.1209/0295-5075/83/30008], we investigated two proposals for enhancing the performance of the photosynthetic reaction center. In proposal A, which is similar to that in Dorfman et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, 2746 (2013)PNASA60027-842410.1073/pnas.1212666110], we found that the power and current-voltage characteristic of the heat engine can be increased by Fano interference but the efficiency cannot. In proposal B, which is similar to that in Creatore et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 253601 (2013)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.111.253601], we found that the mechanism of strengthening the performance of the heat engine is invalid; i.e., the dipole-dipole interaction between two electron donors could not increase the power, efficiency, or current-voltage characteristic.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China.
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu